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THE INGLOKIOUS TUMULE OF KOB AND KAl.I'U. 



ALL ABOARD 



FOR THE 



LAKES AND MOUNTAINS 



A TRIP TO PICTURESQUE LOCALITIES IN 
THE UNITED STATES 



BY 
EDWARD A. RAND 

Author of "All Aboard for Sunrise Lands,' "Bark Cabin on Kearsarge," "Tent in the Notch,' 
"After the Freshet," "Pushing Ahead," "Roy's Dory," "Little Brown-Top," etc., etc 



ILL USTRA TED 



FIFTEENTH THOUSAND 



CHICAGO 

FAIRBANKS & PALMER PUBLISHING CO 

1885 



I 



Copyrighted, 1S85, by 
Fairbanks & Palmer Publishing Co. 



PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 



It is believed by the publishers that the present "ALL ABOARD" will find a 
hearty welcome from the "lads and lassies" who have read Mr. Rand's "All 
Aboard for the Sunrise Lands," and that they will gladly make a second 
journey with Uncle Nat, Rob Merry, and their young friends and companions, 
Ralph and Rick, to the lakes and mountains of America. There is room for all 
who would like to take this journey; "the more, the merrier." So once more. 
All Aboard! 

A popular writer has truly said ; "Among all the lands and nationalities of 
earth America stands, in many respects, peerless, unrivaled and unrivalable. 
It is the broadest land ever given to any people, the grandest and most beau- 
tiful, the most varied in its attractions and its products, and the most unlim- 
ited in its capabilities and its future." 

"The more one rambles over this magnificent continent, our own half world, 
and the more he sees of the never ending, ever changing glories, sublimities and 
beauties, the greater must be his contempt for the average American who turns 
his back on scenes as transcendently grand, varied and enchanting as ever the 
sun in all its wild celestial rounds, looked down upon; and rushes off to Europe, 
to loaf around fashionable hotels, wine shops and haberdashers' stores, and then 
come back and prate, in mock turtle French, of " /« belle Parce" queenly 
" Madrecd" the Lake of Como, Mont Blanc, Rome, Venice, Vesuvius and the 
Alps, and a hundred other places. If he chances to meet an intelligent Euro- 
pean in his travels, the first question asked him exposes his folly, for it is a 
question about some one of the innumerable, sublime and wondrous objects in 
his own country that he has never deemed worth a visit." 

" Nature never constructed a bigger combined idiot and cheap humbug than 
an American who goes into bogus raptures over the lakes and crags of Switzer- 
land and Italy — while he has never seen or cared to see the glorious and beautiful 
wonders of nature found in this country." 



Parents will gladly place this volume in the hands of their boys and girls, 
it will have a healthy influence in that it will give them some idea of the grandeur 
and history of their own land and prevent them, in the years to come, from show- 
ing the ignorance of their own country that is too often manifested by their 
ciders. It was Byron, who, when an American was introduced to him began 
eagerly to cjuestion him abmit Niagara h'alls, and on being told that he had never 
seen them, turned on his heel with an oath of unutterable disgust at the idea of a 
man coming from America to Europe without having seen that wonder of the 
world in his own country. 

The Author requires no introduction to the reader; he has secured an eager 
and large audience among the boys and girls of our land for everything he writes, 
and in this volume he has furnished the freshest and best book of travels, crowd- 
ed with matter about the Western World of the most interesting character, and 
illustrated with a large number of pictures. An editor aptly writes: " Of Mr. 
Rand's book, no praise can be too high, and the perfectness of his style is of that 
kind that claims and holds the attention of the reader. It is a blending of inci- 
dent and description, of which he is master." 



^ CONTENTS. 

Chapter. Page. 

I. Jack Bobstay Arrives 13 

II. Struck by a Comet 23 

III. Via Hoosac 39 

IV. Down the Hudson 53 

V. Off to Niagara 82 

VI. At Niagara 99 

VII. Along the Great Lakes 123 

VIII. Early Days 138 

IX. Big City and Big Lake 143 

X. The Track-Layers 157 

XI. The Yellowstone Park, and Yosemite Valley .... 172 

XII. Near the Rockies 192 

XIII. A Mutual Find 207 

XIV Land of the Celestials 220 

XV. In the Keystone State 229 

XVI. How they crossed the Delaware 245 

XVII. On to Boston 254 

XVIII. A Salt-Water Surprise 274 

XIX. Bound for Cambridge 280 

XX. The Antelope Crawls off 290 

■ XXI. Off for the Notch 296 

XXII. Where to pass the Night 307 

XXIII. In the Notch 318 



8 



CONTENTS. 



XXIV. Up to Cloud-land 

XXV. Mountain-mist! Beware! . 

XXVI. The hunt for Barker 

XXVII. Through the Franconia Notch. 

XXVIII. A Catch .... 

XXIX. On Wheels .... 

XXX. Winnepesaukee 

XXXI. Lake to Mountain 

XXXII. One more Adventure . 



324 
329 

342 
348 

358 
368 

375 
382 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

The inglorious tumble of Rob and Ralph Frontis. 

Nurse Fennel Spinning .... 12 

Old Jack Bobstay 14 

The Wright Tavern 17 

The old Manse iS 

What the Ancestors of Ralph and Rick did . 19 

Rob Merry's Ambition ..... 23 

Sketches at Walden 25 

Concord River 32 

Donati's Comet 34 

Great Reflector at the Paris Observatory . 35 

Home they all went 38 

The iron Horse 39 

German Castle . . ... 40 

View in the Connecticut Valley ... 41 

Hoosac Tunnel 46 

Bear River, Bethel, Me 49 

Dream of the Disciple of Thoreau . . 52 

Wished he could go a-Fishing • • ■ 53 

In the Catskills 55 

The Sea has its Perils 58 

Rick's winter Ship on the way to Lexington 62 

Bumble-bee and Family .... 63 

The Hudson from the Battery ... 66 

View from Fort Putnam .... 67 

Putnam 68 

Putnam's Escape at Horse-neck ... 69 

Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh . 71 

West Point Sketch 73 

Capture of Stony Point . . . . 75 

Capture of Andre 77 

Adirondack Game 79 

Pilgrims' Sunday Rest at Clarke's Island . 82 

Lake Mohoiik ...... 84 

Glimpses of the Delaware near Collicoon . 86 

East and west Branches of the Delaware . 87 

Saratoga Lake 8S 

An ideal Picture 89 

Trenton Falls 91 



Watkins Glen .... 
The real Picnic .... 
" Off on a Picnic " ... 

Splashing down .... 
Niagarafrom the Edge of the American Fall 
"To send it Whirling and Shooting 
Turbulent Waters .... 

Whirlpool 

A lonely pleasure Resort 

Along the great Lakes . 

The unveiled Statue 

Moonlight on the Lake . 

The Waters came rolling in from the Lake 

Thunder Cape, Lake Superior 

On their Way to a Coal Vein 

Early Days 

Burial Hill, Plymouth, Mass. 

Kettle, Sword and Fish in Pilgrim Hall 

La Salle's Canoes on Lake Michigan 

Rick in deerskin Breeches 

Rob's Aboriginees .... 

A Lake in picnic Weather 

A Lake in stormy Weather . 

Launching a Boat .... 

Hauling in the Life-Saving Car . 

View from the Car Window . 

Looking westward 

Fair Waters amid lu.\uriant Forests 

De Soto landing in Florida . 

De Soto's Band worshipping 

Firing De Soto's Cannon 

Early Settlers meeting Indians 

A Mexican Landscape . 

The Deer stood in the cool, hidden Pools 

The unfortunate 'Zekiel's Hat 

Westward Bound, in Former Days 

The Future President 

Yellowstone River near Livingstone 

Geysers of Wyoming, "Old Faithful, "(5 views) 



PAGE. 

93 
96 

98 

99 

lOI 

107 
III 
114 
121 

J 23 

127 
129 

'3' 
132 

13s 
138 
139 
140 
141 
142 

143 
144 
146 
149 
153 
•57 
158 

159 
161 
162 

'63 
164 
i6s 
167 
170 
172 
172 
173 
75 



lO 



ILL USTRA TIONS. 



Yellowslone Rivt-r, in the Park (two views) 

Yellowstone Lake Scenery (three views) 

Great Falls of the Yellowstone 

Looking down the Yosemite Valley 

Oh! Oh! .... 

Sentinel Rock, Yosemite Valley 

Look at That! 

The Ride through the Big Trees 

On the Road 

A Cool Place 

Mount of the Holy Cross 

Grand Canon of the Colorado . 

Swallow Cove 

Water as a Carver in Mu-koon-tu-weap 

Cafion .... 
Mary's Veil .... 
Grand Canon of the Sierras 
Mount Shasta, from the Notch 
Entrance to Pa-ru-nu-wesp 
'' So nice to have a Cup of Tea 
A deep Colorado Ravine 
Horseshoe Canon 
The Land's End 
Chinese Scene 
Its Face white with Rage 
Fishing by Proxy 
A Tablet 

The Spirit's Tablet 
A Spirit's Meal 
Chinese Ware 

Moonlight on the Susquehanna 
A Good Chance to Rest . 
Night Scenes at Furnace Rolling Mill 
The Susquehanna from Cattawissa 
Pipe of Peace 
Indian Surprise 
Mouth of the Cattawissa 
Indian Attack 
Not then as now 
Indian Dance 
Solomon's Gap 
"Oh, for a Tent!" 
Waiting for a Passenger 
Tory Unpopularity 
" No calm River in the Summer Night " 
Washington Crossing the Delaware 
How Captain Rob would have Led Them 
Pot-hooks and Trammels 



177 I 

.78 

170 

.83; 
185 

186 

187 

189 
191 

192 

193 
197 
199 

200 

202 

204 
205 
210 

211 
213 
215 
218 
220 
221 
224 
225 
226 
227 
228 
229 
230 
231 
232 
233 
233 
234 
235 
237 
239 
241 
243 
246 

247 
249 
250 

254 



Prisoners in Stocks 

The coming Jacks of our Navy 

Fioston in 1774, from Dorchester Heights 

Hancock House .... 

The British Mice could only run away 

Bound for Boston . 

White Island Head 

Off Boston Harbor 

"At the Battle of Trafalgar 

Bishop's Head 

" He kept thrusting an Oar 

Describing's Rick's State of Mind 

"A very spotted object" 

Front View of a Spot on the Sun 

The Moon rolling into the Earth's Shadow 

Portion of the Earth in the Moon's Shadow 

Total Eclipse of the Sun 

.Man in the Earth as seen by Man in the 

Moon 
A Case of great Indecision 
Starting off . 
At the Wharf . 
A desired motive Power . 
True Likeness of Nurse Fennel's Umbrella 
.\ Mountain View 
The Mountain Scenery Rob liked 
Conway Meadows . 
Burning into the Night 
Handling a speckled Beauty 
Mount Helicon 
Night Camp Scene . 
An unexpected dose of Grape 
No Friend to Farmers 
A cold-water Camp 
A very obliging sort of a Bear 
A rural momento 
Willey House 
An Avalanche 
An ugly Traveler 
Up to Cloud-land 
Up Mount Washington 
Wish I had an Umbrella 
Free as a Mountain Bird 
Discussing a Route 
Rob's Offer . 
A White Mountain Road 
Among the Mountains 
Snowy Tops . 



255 
256 

257 
2O1 
263 
264 
266 
267 
271 

275 
278 
280 
281 
282 
2S3 
284 
285 

286 
2S9 
290 
291 
292 
293 
296 

297 
301 

304 
305 
306 
308 
309 
310 
312 
313 
317 
319 
321 
323 
324 
325 
327 
330 
331 
332 
333 
335 
336 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



On Foot 


339 


A long Train of School-children's Sleds 


365 


A Mountain Ravine 


342 


Schoolhouse ..... 


366 


Echo Lake ..... 


343 


Tribune Building .... 


367 


Profile Lake 


344 


A familiar Sight .... 


368 


Rival of Washington 


345 


Things pretty well balanced 


369 


Old Time Flume .... 


346 


Bunker Hill Monument . 


370 


From Franconia to North Conway . 


34S 


" Lonely in Winter" 


371 


Bruin at Bay .... 


349 


Lake Winnepesaukee — Steamboat Coming 373 


Uncle Nat saying " Come On! " 


351 


Near where they Camped 


375 


Rick, the Trap Builder . 


352 


Longing for a Boat 


376 


Hunt for Eggs .... 


353 


A modern Craft .... 


377 


Looking out through Forest Curtains 


354 


Making a Canoe .... 


378 


Going a-Fishing .... 


355 


Small Catch 


37S 


Sometimes Empty .... 


356 


A youthful Boatman 


379 


Bridge under gray Sky 


359 


If only There with a Line 


381 


Rick under Cover .... 


360 


A sweet Singer .... 


3S3 


" Slow but Sure" .... 


361 


Ralph's Squirrel 


3S4 


Miss Cat Means Mischief 


362 


Winging their Flight 


335 


Flying Squirrels .... 


363 








.NL'KSE FESNEL SPLNXISG. 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



CHAPTER I. 



JACK BOBSTAY ARRITES. 



/^^NE, two, three, four ! " drowsily drorxed the old town 
^-^ clock at Concord, Mass. 

Then Rick heard a spring bird that timorously tried to find 
out whether it was night or morning, and made one little 
musical outcry in the garden. How still it was afterwards! 

" Oh, dear ! " groaned Rick, stretching and 3'awning in his bed. 
" Wish it was time to get up ! " 

" Keep still," said his bedfellow Ralph Rogers. " You have 
just waked me up." 

" Guess I've been dreaming." 

" You have been uneasy enough for a dozen dreamers, kicking 
and threshing round in bed." 

"I thought I was in a ship — in uncle Nat's Antelope — and 
Jack Bobstay and I went aloft to take in the sails that were 
torn, and a great piece came flapping at me. 

" Torn sail ! I venture to say we shall find some torn sheets 
in the morning, where you've been kicking round. If you and 
Jack Bobstay can't furl sails better than that, you bad better 
leave them to land lubbers like me." 

13 



»4 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



Rick laughed, and said that the next time he saw Jack Bob- 
stay, he would certainly tell hiin that dream. The brothers 
gradually dozed off to sleep again, in spite of a furious morning 
concert given by Robin and Co. When they awoke, there was a 
torn sheet to prove the correctness of Ralph's guess. 

" Funny ! " declared Rick. " What set me to dreaming I was 
furling sails with Jack Bobstay ?" 

It seemed a still funnier fact when, the next day, down the 
concrete walk that led past rows of evergreen trees to Mrs. 
Rogers' front door, there rolled a being. It was a chilly day, 
and this being had a muffled look. Around his neck went a 
wrapping of warm red comforter. On his head was an enormous 
stove-pipe hat that had an uncomfortable look, as if not used to 

the wearer ; and the wearer did not look 
as if used to it. There was a broad 
fringe of uneven gray whiskers to his 
cheeks and chin, looking something like 
a mass of surf flying before the wind. 
Swaying heavily, like a wave out at 
\ sea, an inquiring grin spreading over his 
face, the stranger came forward and held 
out a note to the door. 

"Oh!" he said, "I haven't pulled the 
OLD JACK BOBSTAY AT SEA. thiug-um-bob-what-do-ye-call-it ? " 
Here he vigorously pulled the bell-knob as if he had found 
out that the house was on fire and wished to alarm those 
inside. 

"Who's got held of that bell?" thought Rick, rushing down 
the hall stairs and opening the door. 

Then he held up his hands and exclaimed " Jack Bobstay ! " 




J A CK B OBSTA V ARRI VES. 1 5 

" That's so, boson ! Jack's cruised round at last, and I've 
brought your marm a note from the Cap'n. I may look strange 
in my land-rig, but it's Jack." 

We repeat the picture (given in another All Aboard) of the old 
tar when Rick first saw him. 

Rick was now pulling him into the hall, and having stowed 
him away in a big, leather-cushioned chair, under great-grand- 
father Rogers' portrait, rushed up-stairs, screaming, " Jack Bob- 
stay ! It's Jack Bobstay, mother ! He's got a letter from uncle 
Nat ! " 

" Hush-sh-sh ! " whispered his mother, coming from her room. 
" Tell him I will be down. I will read the letter first." 

While Rick was capering round the beloved Jack, capturing 
his hat and then his comforter, telling him he must stay all 
night, Mrs. Rogers was reading the note from her brother : 

My dear Sister Ellen : 

I am in the city, Boston, but I am so fearfully busy I can't well come out, and 
so send out one of my crew, Jack Bobstay. The boys will remember him as one 
of the crew of the Antelojje, and be glad to see him, I know. I am o-oincr to let 
my first mate take the Antelope off on a very short voyage, and, in tlie meantime 
I want to take a trip on shore. Don't you want to let Ralph and Rick go with 
me ? ( "Mercy ! " interjected Mrs. Rogers, " what is Nat up to now ? ") I expect 
to invite also Rob Merry. He is cousin Merry's boy, though I guess you have not 
seen him for some time. He is about sixteen, and though Rick is youno-er, Ralph 
is about Rob's age, and they will get along nicely together. Now, let your two 
hopefuls go with me. I will take good care of them, and show them some mountains, 
and lakes also, before they get through. (A groan esca])ed from Mrs. Rogers " Oli 
dear, hope they won't get drowned ! ") But I am coming out soon and we can 
arrange details. I will take good care of the boys. 

Affectionately yours, 

Brother Nat. 

Mrs. Rogers put away the note in a bureau drawer for " future 
consideration." But when she went down into the hall, she found 



1 6 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

that Rick, Ralph and Jack Bobstay had both considered and 
decided the matter. 

"0, mother," exclaimed Ralph, " isn't it nice that we are going?" 

"And Jack Bobstay thinks we shall like the trip!" declared 
Rick. " Ask him to stay all night," he whispered. 

"Will not Mr. Bobstay stay all night?" Mrs. Rogers inquired 
very politely. 

Jack was rather embarrassed by so much attention. He coughed 
and cleared his throat, coughed and cleared it once more. 

"You are very kind, marm. If — if — there is a spare bunk 
handy, and it wouldn't trouble you too much, I would — rather — 
like to anchor here — with boson and his brother." 

" That will give me time to think over the proposition my 
brother has made. Perhaps you would like to see the town. I 
know the boys will be glad to show it to 30U." 

Jack Bobstay, as if a walrus that had been captured for a 
triumphal procession, was now led in pride through the jKcturesque 
streets of the dear old town. 

"Ralph will be spokesman. He knows all about the places, 
and can talk like a book," said Rick, glancing proudly at his 
brother. 

" I will do the best I can," said Ralph, unbuttoning his coat 
that was a little too tight for him after this compliment. 
"That is the old Wright Tavern, Mr. Bobstay. You know we had 
a fio-ht here, or our ancestors did, with the British, in 1775, on 
the nineteenth of April. The story reads that when the British 
troops marched into town, their commander, Major Pitcairn, visited 
this tavern. You can see it is a pretty old house, but is kept 
in good repair. It is not used as a tavern now. If you would 
like to go up and see where the fight was, we will do so now." 



JACK BOBSTA Y ARRIVES. 



17 



While Jack Bobstay rolled along heavily, the Rogers boys stepped 
off with as much spirit as if a detachment of young continentalers 
on their way to meet and resist a present British invasion. Was it 
any wonder ? Had their mother not often told them that their ances- 
tors shed some of the Revolutionary blood that was spilled, and did 
not old Nurse Fennel often say to the boys, "On the Rogers-es-es 
side, why, there is Winthrop blood straight from the Mayflower in 



'&' 



m 



m 




&4 



.{'A 



Kx. 






:im 







,«siS^*- 



THE WRIGHT TAVEnN. 



your veins ? " The old lady did not mean to say that in their veins 
was a Mayflower, but it did sometimes seem as if she thought 
very little of value came over in the Maijflower, except Winthrop 
blood. 

" There," said the Bobstay-party guide, standing at the North 
Brido-e, over the Concord River, ''you can see where the fight here 
was. Our men were on the west side of the river, who had come 
from different towns. They now saw tlie smoke coming from the 
village, and thought the British were burning it. They resolved not 
to let them, and were advancing when the British, on this east side 



i8 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



of the river, fired. Two of our men were Ivilled at tlie opening 
of tlie figlit, and some of tlie British were killed here also. The 
British retreated, you know, to Boston, our folks peppering them all 
the way." The boys now turned away from the bridge. 

" And what is that old thing ? " asked Jack, pointing at an 
ancient building. 

Mrs. Rogers had followed the party, and having now overtaken 
them, was shocked to hear Jack's inquiry. 

" That is the Old Manse," she replied with dignity. 

" Yes," said Ralph, " the house was built for a minister, and has 




THE OLD MANSE. 



been a great house for Concord. Ralph Waldo Emerson lived 
here at times, and Hawthorne made it his home when he wrote 
that book, Mossejs from an Old Mnnae" 

Jack was shown various other places of interest. 




WHAT THE AKCKSTOKS OK KAI.PH AM) UICK DID. 



J A CK B OB ST A Y ARK 1 1 'ES. 3 1 

" That is Mr. Emerson's place," remarked Mrs. Rogers. 

" Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great writer and thinker," explained 
Ralph Rogers. " You see it does not make any great show, but looks 
like a comfortable, old-fashioned two-story house. There is the front 
yard, and the pine-trees give it a pleasant look all through the year." 

The walrus went along with an abstracted air. There was a 
dreamy look to his eyes, as if through a fog he were contemplating 
an object at sea. 

He was shown other objects of interest, and among them, the 
School of Philosophy, where summer rallies so many bright people, 
but the ancient mariner did not show that appreciative look that 
is expected in the contemplation of the Concord idols. 

'• Stupid ! " thought Mrs. Rogers. " He would do for an old 
figurehead of a ship that you never expect to see interested." 

She felt like changing her mind half an hour later. The marine 
wonder had been conducted in safety to the Rogers' door, and the 
triumphal procession had broken up and scattered over the house. 
Looking into the parlor, Mrs. Rogers saw Jack Bobstay standing 
before the fireplace whose mantel was crowded with Old Manse 
mosses, small continental relics, pictures of Emer.son and Hawthorne. 
Jack in a state of excitement, was contemplating some object. 
His lips were parted in a smile of admiration, his eyes flashing, 
and his head enthusiastically nodding. 

'• Ain't she a beauty ? " he asked, seeing Mrs. Rogers in the 
doorway. 

" Y-e-s," replied that lady hesitatingly, puzzled by this application 
of the feminine gender to that shelfload of relics. " I have a good 
many of them." 

" What, more than that 'ere and all as alive as sAe ? " inquired 
Jack Bobstay, pointing at an object above the relics. Mrs. Rogers 



22 ALL ABOARD I-OK J HE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

raised her eyes, and saw what had liiing there many days, but 
whicli was a thing uf paltry vahio in comparison with that 
beloved shelf. The object on the wall was a picture of the Antelope, 
whose rigging Jack Bobstay had climbed so often. The vessel was 
under full canvas, and had such an animated look that you almo.'^t 
expected to hear the whirr of the wind among the sails, or the 
swash of the foam that the Antelopen swift feet had stirred up. 

" You got more tlmn that one, niarm ? If you ain't fort'- 
nate ! " 

Mrs. Rogers covered up her disgust as politely as possible and 
retreated to her room. 



CHAPTER II. 



STRUCK BY A COMET. 



OOD ! I know that's cousin Rob Merry coming 
Q with uncle Nat ! " and as Ralph, taking a 
■ chance look into the street from his mother's 
chamber window, made this discovery, he seized 
his cap and went out to meet these arrivals 
by the last train from Boston. 

"This is cousin Rob Merry, Ralph," said his 
uncle Nat. " You must know each other right 
off." 

" We won't waste much time on that pro- 
cess," replied Rob, ardently grasping Ralph's liand, 
and then greeting as warmly the younger brother 
when he appeared. 

." I like cousin Rob," was Rick's later 

acknowledgment to his mother. " He has been 

ROB MERRY'S AMBITION, yp in thc Whltc Mouutains and built a bark 

cabin, and lived in a tent there, and can play base-ball and — 

and " — 

" He must be a wonderful young man." 
" He can catch 'em on the fly, and " — 
" Catch flies ? Every housekeeper has to do that." 
" Catch halls on the Jly, mother," replied Rick, astonished at his 

23 




24 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

mother's ignorance. " Next year when he's seventeen, he is 
going to be an S. 0." 

"S. 0.?" 

" Yes ; that means the Sunrise Outs, a great club, and they wear 
S. 0. on the breast. " 

" Sunrise Outs ? That's a funn}- name." 

" It means to be up, out, by sunrise ; that is, to be wide 
awake, Rob says." 

" Oh ! " murnuu-ed the stupid mother. '' Well, T guess you boys 
are all wide awake enough. 1 hope the club boys won't trouble 
their mothers by lying bed, but really be up early in the morning." 

Mrs. Rogers was liere left to her own conjectures. Base-ball 
clubs don't wish to have too many questions asked. 

Of the three boys, Rob Merry was the tallest and heaviest. 
In looks and character, he differed from Ralph. Rob's brown 
curls and blue eyes were in marked contrast with the straight 
black hair and dark eyes of Ralph. Rob liad more vivacity and 
dash than Ralph, and in these particulars, lie resembled Rick ; but 
Rick was very unlike Rob in figure. Rick was a chubby, thick- 
set youth, and his tendency was to grow still stouter. His sandy 
hair, fair complexion slightly freckled, and quick, flashing eyes 
did not change, tliough. Ralph was more quiet in his temperament 
than the others ; more cautious and steady, and Rick soon found 
out that if mischief was contemplated, Rob Merry was a more 
sympathetic soul than Ralph. The mother of Ralph had discove<-ed, 
;:hough, no special lack of appreciativeness in him. In spite of 
any differences of temperament, the three boys were warm friends, 
and each aimed to be an " S. 0." 

" Look here," said uncle Nat the day after his arrival, " I 
expect to see some of the lakes and mountains of the land, and 



STRUCK BY A COMET. i-j 

want these boys to do so ; and what if we begin with Lake 
Walden? How will that do, Ellen Maria?" 

" Go and see Walden Pond ? " 

" Yes ; that is it." 

The boys by this time had all made up their minds that it 
would be an excellent plan to pay Lake Walden a visit, and only 
•waited one word from Mrs. Rogers to begin pi^eparations for the trip. 

"I think it would be well to start with Lake Walden," and her 
maternal timidity inclined her to say, " and stop with it," but 
she said nothing further. 

She ventured to make a remark on another subject : " Nathaniel, 
what good does it do to take that old sailor round ? He can't 
appreciate Concord." 

Uncle Nat only laughed and said that Concord was one of the 
nicest places in the world, and he liked to show it to friends. 

Lake Walden that day was just a dimple of crystal in the spring 
landscape. Only half a mile long, one and a half in circumference, 
it is a dimple for a lake. As our party stood near the buildings 
erected for picnic purposes at one end of the pond, uncle Nat 
suggested that they walk to the spot where Thoreau's house stood. 

" There," said uncle Nat when they had reached the spot, 
"Thoreau came from Concord village and built his little shanty 
about forty years ago, when this was a secluded place, and I 
think he did an excellent work in showing people how little they 
could live on. Thoreau lived here all alone. Do you know the 
figures, Ralph?" 

The guide-book was ready : " I think his house was ten feet by 
fifteen, and it had one room, and a garret, and a closet, and cost 
him about thirty dollars. And he lived here eight months, and 
his bill was between eight and nine dollars." 



28 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

" That is it. The rich man is not the man who has much to 
do with, but the one who can get along with very little. Thoreau 
was a snappy writer and had a lot of poetry in him too." 

On their way back to the village, uncle Nat said to his com- 
panions, " What I want to find is some place where you can be 
in a boat all day if you wish ; lloat or row as you please." 

"That stands to reason much moi'e then walking," said Jack 
Bobstay, who had a strong aversion to anything like land-locomotion. 

" Oil, let's try Concord River and a picnic," suggested Ralph. 

The proposition, especially the picnic part of it, was exceedingly 
popular with the juveniles of the company. 

Jack Bobstay asked one question at the boat, as he handled a 
well-fdled basket. 

" This basket goin', Cap'n ? " 

" Oh, yes ; it's a lunch basket." 

" I thought you praised at Walden those who could do with little." 

" Oh, yes ; Init you know this is on account of sailor-company." 

Jack grinned and put the basket into the boat. 

Boats are as popular in Concord as gondolas in Venice. Indeed, 
the sleepy stream that throws a blue arm around the meadows, 
making such a curve of beauty back of the village, seems more 
like a canal in a dozing city of the Mediterranean than a river 
in quick-moving New England. Uncle Nat that day proposed some 
qaestions to the boys that started up their thoughts, even as our 
New England rivers set the mill-wheels to turning. The party 
pulling their boat ashore near the foot of an old pine, had spread 
an ample lunch under the tree. Save one boat, they were the 
only visitors in the neighborhood. The occupants of that boat 
were a gentleman who had pulled his craft ashore, and a lady 
whose eyes were fastened on a book in her lap. 



IIIWIISClII''''* ■ 







STR UCK BY A COMET. 3 1 

Lunch over, the lunchers were lazily reclining upon the grass, 
now watching the white clouds sailing across the sky, and then 
following their white shadows sailing across the glassy waters. 

" Boys, " said the Captain suddenly, " do you see those 
meadows ? " 

"Ay, ay, sir," responded Jack Bobstay promptly. 

" Tell me where all that meadow soil came from ? " 

" It growed there, Cap'n." 

Jack's auditors laughed. 

"Well," said uncle Nat, "Jack is nearer right than one might 
think for. Perhaps a forest was there, and the trees kept dropping 
twigs and leaves there for a hundred or hundreds of years. So 
the deposit of new matter for soil went on accumulating. Then 
the river may have been broader once than now, and it deposited 
mud on what became a foundation subsequently for forest growth. 
But take all the land there, take the sand or clay there may 
be beneath. You go down through all this earth, and you come 
to rock. So when one digs down through a hill of sand or 
gravel, they come at last to rock. It is rock, rock, rock under 
the loam, sand, gravel, clay, though you may have to go through 
a great many feet. The earth on top of the rocks is called the 
drift, and my question about the meadow-soil really is this, where 
did the drift come from ? " 

" The water in the rivers and the ocean may have brought 
it," said Ralph. . 

" Brought it from what place ? " 

"The hills." 

" But how did it get to the hills ? " 

Ralph shook his head. 

" The rocks were ground up into this drift," said Rob. 



39 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



"What did the grinding? What were the mill-stonea?" 
Rob now shook his head. 

"There have been various theories to account for the drift. 
One is, that floods of water did it; another finds an explanation 

in icebergs, a third in glaciers, a 

fourth in a vast ice-sheet big as 

a continent, and Ignatius 

Donnelly finds a reason 

in a collision between 

the earth and a 

comet." 

"And the 
comet spilled 
itself on the 
earth and 
m a d e the 
drift?" asked Jack 
Bobstay. 

"That is Mr. Don- 
nelly's reason, substan- 
tially." 
"I^j- - ' Jack looked incredulous. 

f^ "* The faces of the rest were as 
doubtful, but each showed a 
sharp, curious interest in the 
question discussed, 
floods of water brought the drift, 
CONCORD RIVER. wliBrc did thc drift come from ? What 

spot was its storehouse? Then wc find on stones in the 
drift mvsterious scratches, but water rubs out scratches rather 




STRUCK BY A COMET. n 

than makes them. As for icebergs bringing earth down from 
the North and then melting, one wonders where these ice-carts 
could so load up at the North, and when they unloaded, you 
would suppose that the heaviest matter would go to the bottom, 
whereas in the drift we find little stones and big stones pretty 
equally mixed up. You might thus account for the scratched 
rocks in part, and glaciers also might leave scratches on the 
stones they had bruised with the rocky grinders that were in 
them. But glaciers flow in localities in valleys. They do not 
spread out, and go grinding everywhere, over the mountain-tops 
as well as the valleys. So the theory of glaciers, that were 
vast as a continent, has been devised. What a cool time that 
was, when, if true, there were ice-sheets, from one to five miles 
in thickness, and then stretching out in width for thousands of 
miles, extending in length to a point thirty-five or forty degrees 
from the poles ! These great masses, moving southward, are 
supposed to have ground down into the rocks and crushed them 
into the gravel, clay, and bowlders that we find, and of course there 
would have been many scratches left on the rocks. I can't give 
all of Mr. Donnelly's objections, but he wonders what set the ice- 
sheets to moving southward ; why it is that the scratches on the 
rocks are in such contrary directions ; why it is that the drift 
is so lacking in Siberia, where you might expect ice, and yet 
abundant in some other countries where ice-sheets, Mr. Donnelly 
thinks, could not have extended. So Mr. Donnelly feels constrained 
to call in the help of a comet." 

" That comes booming, and tumbles over into the lap of the 
earth ? " asked Rob. 

" I will tell you what Mr. Donnelly thinks. It will be worth 
your while, when you have a chance, to look at a comet. If we 



34 



ALL ABOARD FOR HIE LAKES AND MOL'ATAINS. 



comet. 

named a comet 



only liad an instrument like the Great Reflector in Paris, we 
could have u line opportunity to go star-gazing." 
'•'The Paris Reflector ?" inquired Rob. 

'• Yes, the reflector is a telescope where the light is reflected 
from a larue mirror at the lower end of the tube. The observer 
stands with his back to the heaveidy body he wishes to see, and 
looking in at the upper end of the tulje, sees the image reflected 
in the mirror. You know comets are peculiar. Take Donati's 
Donati was an Italian astronomer, and after him was 
he discovered in 1858. It is singular in appeal^ 
ance, having two tails, and even three were 
once seen. One view of the comet shows the 
two tails drooping like plumes. Comets, too, 
are strange in their paths and strange in their 
materials. One theory of their composition 
is that of "faint mists." Some have thought 
tliey were made of gases, and then again 
solid matter has also been declared to be 
massed in the comets. Donnelly not only 
mentions vast masses of gas, but solid mate- 
rials. Here he mentions stones and sands, the 
fine matter rubbed off the stones by long friction. 
Now imagine a big, fiery creature, its head 
fifteen, twenty-five, fifty times as big as the moon, and its tail over one 
hundred million miles long, and this comes sweephig along and gives 
the earth a whack with its tail ! It would dust the earth in a very 
short time to the depth of hundreds of feet, and there is the 
drift ! All the mystery solved in that one blow of the comet's 
tail ! One might imagine that the blow would bring down the 
whole tail of the comet, as it is made up of stones, gravel, and 




DONATI S COMET. 




liliEAT llEFLECTOK AT THE TAJIIS UUSERVATOKV. 



STRUCK BY A COMET. 37 

stone-dust, and poor earth would be out of sight in a big tomb 
instantly. When you have a comet, like that of 1811, owning a 
tail at its widest part measuring nearly fourteen million miles 
across, so estimated, Mr. Donnelly thinks our little earth, if struck, 
would only make a bullet hole, a mere eyelet hole — a pin hole 
in it — and the parts would close up at once, and so Mr. Vagabond 
Comet would never know that anything had troubled his rags, I 
suppose. Mr. Donnelly thinks the comet might have struck ' head 
on, amid ships,' making more serious changes ; tipping up the 
earth's axis, cracking the surface, and making room for the big 
American lakes iu the dents made. He gives a figure, showing 
how the comet, of course, showered the drift on the side of the 
earth it struck, and, as the other side escaped, this will account 
for the uneven distribution of the drift to-day ; so much more on 
one side of the earth than on the other. It certainly is a very 
ingenious theory. Mr. Donnelly thinks he finds traces of this 
comet attack on the earth in various old legends. Did either of 
you, Rob or Ralph, ever read Omd?" 1 

" I have," said Rob. " We have had a little of it in our Latin." 

"Do you remember what Ovid says about the adventure of 
Phaethon ? " 

" I remember Phoebus, the god of day, gave his son Phaethon 
permission to drive the horses of the sun, and they ran away with 
him." 

" Yes ; and at last they come crashing down to earth, hitting the 
mountain-tops, setting the woods on fire, cracking open the earth, 
starting the rivers into a lively boil, and drying them up, contract- 
ing the sea, firing great cities — Oh, what a commotion there was ! 
Donnelly sees in this a tradition of the burning of the world, all 
caused by the comet. All this is interesting, whether it is true 



38 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



or not. 1 don't believe it — but it may be so, after all," he 
continued, in a somewhat meditative mood. 

Uncle Nat's auditors were deeply interested, expressing tlieir opin- 
ions very promptly. The time went off rapidly, so earnest was 
the conversation. It was Jack Bobstay who gave a practical turn 
to the talk. 

" Cap'n," he said, " I understand, then, that we are not settin' on 
g"ound so much as drift, or rather the tail of a comet. There's 
no tellin' how that ere crittur will twist next, and wouldn't it be 
safer to git up and go home ? You said to your sister you would 
be there by two, and it is all that now." 

Home they all went. 



■■rf.,.*-" 











(-tigF^ISl^wT- 




CHAPTER III. 



VIA IIOOSAC. 



OF course Mrs. Rogers consented to uncle Nat's plans for a 
trip to the lakes and mountains. The trunks of the boys 
were packed, and Nahum Wheeler had taken them to the Fitch- 
burg Station. Good-by had been .said to the neighbors, all save 
Nurse F'ennel. Ralph and Rick had so desired that Jack Bobstay 
might see her, or that she might see him, for Nurse Fennel told 
the boys that once she had had a sailor-son, but she supposed he was 
sleeping at the bottom of the sea. " Years have corae and years 
have gone, but nary a word has come to me about my Villium," 
said the old lady. As Jack was a kind of travelling directory 
who seemed to have met and remembered every one who had 
gone to sea, the boys thought he might have heard about poor 
"Villium," supposed to be asleep in a merman's cave deep, deep, 
deep down on the sea-bottom. 

" All aboard and away ! " shouted uncle Nat to his party at the 
station, as a Western express came smashing along. 

" Good-by," mother ! " screamed Ralph and Rick. 



aa 



40 ALL ABOARD L'OR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

" Good-by, boys ! " and the next minute the track was as destitute 
of a train as if the locomotive had never had an existence. 

" Boys," said uncle Nat, looking out from the window of a Pull- 
man, " notice that hill over there. We must have eyes for such 
objects, especially in our journey. I was thinking what a nice nest, 
though a high one, its top would be for one of the old-time castles." 

" That is where they used to stick them," said Rob. 

"Yes; when I have been in Germany, I have noticed how fond 
people once were of putting their castles away up on the rocks 




OKKMAN CASTLK. 



and crags where people couldn't reach them, though they them- 
selves liked to enjoy the liberty of occasionally visiting the lowlands 
and snatching some booty in quiet. What good, though, would it do 
nowadays to l)uild on the rocks for a fortress? Unless it was 
very high, modern artillery would shel^ them out." 




VIEW IS^TIIE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 



VIA no OS AC. 43 

When the cars were rumbling across the Connecticut River, 
uncle Nat exclaimed, " That is a pretty river, and if you track 
it, you will be sure to find some pretty places. I have enjoyed 
a happy day there in the valley, fishing from a boat and watch- 
ing the shadows of the clouds trail across the country to Mount 
Holyoke." 

"Did you go alone?" asked Rick innocently. 

" Oh, no ; you — you — you remember the ladies that were passen- 
gers on board the An-Antelojie ? " 

"Oh! Miss Percy?" 

" N-no ; I went with the Way-Waylands." 

" But there was only Miss Wayland ! " still persisted the thought- 
less inquirer. 

"Oh — oh! she was there, and her — her sisters." 

What was the matter with uncle Nat ? His confusion was 
evident, and his face suggested a crimson west at sunset. 

On and on shot the train, crashing and slashing away, shrieking 
at lonely cross-roads, thundering past some station, rumbling over 
a bridge, panting up a steep grade, till at last uncle Nat shouted, 
" Boys, we are nearing Hoosac Tunnel ! " Already it seemed as if 
the cool shadows of the tunnel were falling over them. 

" We have time," remarked uncle Nat, " to mention some things 
about this famous tunnel. It bores that high ridge of rock that 
stretches across Western Massachusetts and which is a part of the 
great Appalachian mountain system, running north of us, as the 
Green Mountains in Vermont, and the White Mountains in New 
Hampshire. Below us, we find it towering in the Adirondack 
Mountains of New York, including the Highlands of the Hudson, 
stretching far down into the Alleghanies of Pennsylvania, then 
going into Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas. People know it as 



44 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

the Blue Ridge, down there in Virginia, but it goes still farther; 
into Alabama even; and up north it keeps on to the Gulf ol St. 
Lawrence. This great mountain system, one vast chain with linke 
of granite, iron, and coal, is thirteen hundred miles long. The 
lloosac Tunnel pierces a part of the Appalachian systen. It ie 
almost five miles from its eastern to its western gate, and it was 
bored to give the iron horse a chance to dash through and make 
quick connection with the West." 

"How did they get through the mountains?" asked Rob. "1 
mean, did they drill and blast as they would in an ordinary ledge ? " 

" At first they tried boring machines. One was made in South 
Boston, that was intended to cut a groove around the circumfer- 
ence of the Tunnel and the groove was to be about a foot wide. 
The tunnel was to have a diameter of twenty-four feet. When 
the groove had been cut in to a certain depth, then it was intended 
to blast out the centre core with powder, or break it off with wedges. 
But the grand machine cut very finely into Hoosac Mountain for 
ten feet, and refused to cut any more. After further experimenting, 
the men at work came right down to the old-fashioned way of 
hand-drills and powder. But this would not answer. They could 
only gain sixty feet headway a month, at either end of the tun- 
nel. Tell me at that rate, how long it would go through a moun- 
tain five miles thick ? It is four miles and twenty-one twenty- 
fifths ; but we will say five miles." 

" There are five thousand two hundred and eighty feet in a 
mile," said Ralph, " and multiplying that by five and dividing by 
a hundred and twenty feet a month, we should have, well " — 

Ralph scratched his head and then did some scratching on a 
piece of paper with a pencil. 

" Two hundred and twenty months, I think, sir." 



VIA HOOSAC. 45 

" Well, Yankees must go through a mountain quicker than that, 
and they invented power drills." 

" Steam power ? " inquired Rob. 

" Steam engines in the tunnel would have filled it with smoke, 
and steam could not successfully he carried so far in pipes. So 
they used compressed air. I visited the tunnel once, and I will 
tell you what I saw. In the lower story of a building I saw 
the compressors at work. These were big air-forcing pumps and 
they pressed the air into a small compass. By means of pipes, 
the air was carried far into the tunnel. Air, you know, is elastic. 
Press it into a smaller volume, and it will try to regain its for- 
mer dimensions. Consequently, when the air from the pipes was 
let into a cylinder with a piston, it would drive the piston out, 
and anything on the end of the piston would be driven forward. 
Put a drill on the end of the piston, say, and forward would go 
your drill, cutting into the rock that might confront it. Let the 
air escape from the cylinder, and the piston falls back only to be 
sent forward again. What they called a ratchet, on the cylinder, 
turned the piston and the drill round a bit every fresh stroke. 
When I was there, they were cutting about two hundred and 
forty feet every month into the rock. A queer sight it was, after 
a ride far into the tunnel, to see the men at work on the rocky 
end of the tunnel. The drills worked by the compressed air were 
ranged on a carriage, and were cutting their way into the rock. 
I saw two sets of men working hand drills. Some of the hands 
were loading a car with pieces of rock. In that strange place — 
away in the bowels of the earth, the flaring lights trying to 
brighten the place, the noise of the drills mingling with that of 
the hammers and the tumbled rocks — I felt lost." 
" What were they blasting with ? " asked Rob. 



ALL ABOARD FOR TILE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



" They were using iiitro glycerine wliere the rock was luird. 
Nitro glycerine cartridges in tin cans, with cork stoppers, were 

placed in the drilled 
holes. Throngh the 
corks there went wires 
of an electric fuse. 
Longer wires went to 
;in electrical machine 
some way off toward 
the opening of the tun- 
nel. The men left the 
place, the electric cur- 
rent flashed away on its 
e r r a n d a n d — bang, 
lioum, roar ! What a 
terrible crash ! " 

"Wasn't there a cen- 
tral shaft ? " inquired 
Ralph. 

•• Yes ; about two and 
a quarter miles from 
the west end of the tun- 
nel, that was sunk, not 
far from the centre. A 
terrible accident occurred 
there once. In the sum- 
mer of 1867, there was 
some lighting apparatus 
in the buildings at the 
noosAc. Tu.x.N...... «li=^ft- The plan was to 




VIA I/O OS AC. 47 

liofht the shaft with gas made from gasoline. It had not been success- 
ful, and a new trial was made. That day, in some way, the 
gasoline in the tank not far from the engine, took fire. The whole 
structure was blazing in a moment ! The flames drove off the 
engineer, badly scorched. But down in that shaft, six hundred 
feet down, at its bottom, thirteen men wei^e working, and there 
between them and their friends, was that awful fire, cutting off 
all possible communication with the outside world ! As the air 
pumps ceased to work, no fresh air could be sent down to the 
imprisoned miners. Then there were pumps to discharge the 
water that collected in the shaft, and these of course ceased to 
work, and the shaft must have begun at once to fill. It was 
twelve hours before the fire was put out and any apparatus could 
be arranged for descending the shaft. A bi-ave fellow, by the 
name of Mallory, was willing to be lowered into that dismal 
pit. They lowered him by means of a rope, sending down three 
lighted lanterns with him, and in his hand was a little signal 
cord which he was to pull in an emergency. Down, down, he 
went, two of his lanterns going out, and a shout coming up 
through the blackness. They drew him up when he pulled the 
signal cord, and he was in an almost unconscious state on rejoin- 
ing his friends. He had not seen anything of the miners, and 
it was no wonder, as water had covered the bottom of the shaft 
to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet. Nothing more could be 
attempted, and in a few days water filled the shaft. In the 
autumn of the succeeding year, the shaft was once more free oi 
water, so long lasted the tedious process of emptying what had 
rapidly gathered." 

"Did they find the men?" asked Rick. 

" Yes ; their bodies were found in the .shaft. It cost money, 



48 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

time uiid life, to construct tlie Iloosac Tunnel. Actual tunneling 
began in 185G, and on July 8, 1875, the first regular passenger 
train went through the tunnel. But here we are, almost at the 
eastern gateway of the tunnel ! " 

It was an excursion train, and the engine halted outside of the 
tunnel. 

'•It is a pretty rocky place," said Rick. 

" Yes ; plenty of rock here, and back from the opening of the 
tunnel stretches the mountain where one can find an abundance 
of ledges," said uncle Nat. " Our New England, though, has lovely 
nooks among her roughness. Once I found in Maine, Bear River, 
and what a pretty place it was ! " 

The tunnel was a romantic spot, the bulky mountain sweeping 
far beyond and above, and at its foot was that little hole into 
which ran two tracks, going — who could say where ? Platform 
cars were now prefixed to the train, carefully railed about and 
furnished with torches. Uncle Nat and his fellow excursionists 
took their places on board the flat cars. Then the engine shook 
out of its stack a quantity of smoke, like a lion flourishing his 
mane, coughed, shook out more smoke, rumbled, coughed — and 
slowly moved into the tunnel, taking a load of wondering, noisy 
sightseers with it. The white, outside light faded away, and the 
yellow light of the torches fell on the tunnel-walls. 

" Look at the brick arches, boys," said uncle Nat, calling atten- 
tion to the masonry of the tunnel. In some parts of the 
tunnel it has been found difficult to bore, not because it was a 
hard rock, but rather because it was soft. This rock has been 
called a disintegrated mica schist, for in water it would dissolve 
very quick, — a kind of pudding. I should say, with no real rocks 
for plums. Progress, then, was made with much difficulty. The only 





1^ .r^ 


-™- 


\ 


1 jK-^y 


% 






^^^a 










m- 








-j^mfc: 


:„ 


f'M 




BEAR RIVER, BETHEL, MAINE. 



VIA HO O SAC. SI 

way tliey could manage was to hold up the walls by a timber 
casing, building the brick arch inside. As the soft rock could 
not directly support tlie arch, they laid an inverted arch first, 
and then a tube of brick was constructed on that, seven courses 
in thickness, and this, at the western end, on my visit, I found 
to be a number of hundred feet long, a cylinder of brick you 
— what's that?" 

'' Water, water ! " screamed Rick. " There it comes, splashing 
down from somewhere ! " 

"There is a good deal of water in this old mountain." 

The train went on steadily, the excursionists excitedly peering 
out at tlie walls of the tunnel, the lights flashing, the engine 
rumbling away. 

At last it was daylight again. 

" Here we are ! " exclaimed uncle Nat. " I have been through 
the tunnel, nigh five miles, in eight minutes and a half, but I 
am glad to have the train go more like a stage-coach to-day." 

The boys were intensely interested in their trip. They stopped 
at North Adams that night. 

" Somehow it has given us an appetite to see the tunnel," 
declared Rick as they seated themselves for supper at the hotel 
table. 

" Yes, Rick, you look empty as the tunnel before a single 
train went into it," said vmcle Nat. 

" I expect uncle Nat would like to take supper at Thoreau's 
Hotel, Lake Walden," was Ralph's opinion. 

" Ha, ha ! " rejoined uncle Nat, flourisliing a carving-knife over 
a savory sirloin steak, " there are times, boys, when — when — 
I guess I will show what my opinion is by my acts." 

The boys joked uncle Nat about his complimentary opinion of 



52 ALL ABOARD FOR TILE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

Thoreau's simple lial)its at Walden, and expressed the opinion that 
he was not following that eminent and beloved model. It is to 
be feared that uncle Nat was not as abstemious at that supper 
as he might have been, for in the sleep that followed he was 
sadly ridden by a nightmare. He thought that out of the tunnel 
his beloved Rick came Hying, his hands outstretched in supplica- 
tion, and after him rushed — see what follows this! 




THK DREAM OF THE DISCIPLE OP THOBEAU. 



CHAPTER IV. 



DOWN THE HUDSON. 



T TNCLE Nat took his 
^^ party down the Hud- 
son. The steamer was 
roomy, the passengers 
agreeable, and uncle Nat's 
forethought had arranged 
for many details of per- 
sonal comfort. 

" We will track for a 
little way the Appalachian 
range that we ran into 
at the Hoosac Mountain, 
and we will do it by a 
Hudson River trip," uncle 
Nat had told the boys. 

Alas ! it rained soon 

after embarking. The 

rain let down great vapory curtains that enclosed the river. The 

young people were uneasy. Rick wished he could " go a-fishing." 

"Not in this rain. Rick?" asked uncle Nat. 

" Yes sir, I would." 

" I'll tell you what, boys, let's reorganize the Antelope Guild 
that we had on our voyage to Australia." 
" Splendid ! " said Ralph. 

53 




■WISHED HK COULD GO A-FISHING. 



54 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

"If Ralph will be secretary, and Rick 'the saxton,' as before, 
we shall be provided for," said uncle Nat. 

''If I am to be secretary," replied Ralph, "then T shall _u;ive 
the 8a.\ton notice of a meeting very soon." 

'•And if I am to be saxton," added Rick, "and provide a 
place of meeting, then 1 shall secure the stateroom that is uncle 
Nat's, and you — you will" — 

"Find a notice of the hour of the meeting on the stateroom 
door, the name of the essayist also," interposed the secretary. 

In two minutes a slip of paper was pinned to the door, con- 
taining this notice : 

A niceting will be held at once, in tliis apartment, of tlie reorganized Antelope 
Guilil. It is expected that the renowned Captain Natlianiel Stevens will read a \a!- 
uable i)aper. Members of the Guild cordially invited. 

RALPH ROGERS. Secretary. 

"I don't believe uncle Nat will care to have the puff you 
give him," said Rob ; " you had better omit it." 

"And you didn't say ' past and present members of the Guild,' " 
ob.served Rick. 

"Immense quantity of past members on board!" replied Ralph. 
" However, to please you, I will change it. There is uncle Nat ! " 

Uncle Nat now came forward to meet the ])oys, having been 
absent awhile in the department of eatables, ordering a nice treat 
to be sent to his stateroom in half an hour. This was intended 
as a surprise for the Guild, which was sure to be hungry almost 
any hour of the day. 

" What is this ? " inquired uncle Nat. reading the amended 
notice of the Guild. " A meetino; will Ije held at once in this 
apartment, of the reorganized Antelope Guild. Past and present 
members of the Guild cordially invited. Raplh Rogers, Secretary. 




IN THE CATSEILLS. 



DOWN THE HUDSON. 57 

Well, that ought to get out a full meeting. But who gives the 

We are all modest, vmcle. Nat, and concede that honor to 



essay ? " 



you. 

"You do, Ralph? That is kind." 

Uncle Nat, though, was ready. He had intended to revive the 
Guild, and before leaving Concord had prepared a paper which he 
now pulled out of his pocket. 

j;' Before reading, I want to tell you, boys, that it has quit 
raining and the clouds are lifting. We shall have some nice 
scenery to look at. I wish we could go to the country north of 
us and see the Adirondacks. Grand scenery that ! And the Cats- 
kills are west of Catskill, which we pass on the Hudson. Round 
Top, High Peak and Overlook are summits running up nearly four 
thousand feet. Water as well as rock has done much for the 
Catskills. Beautiful cascades are there. But I am not reading 
my paper. I want to tell about the man who gave his name to 
the river we are journeying on, Henry Hudson. May day, 1607, 
there sailed from Gravesend, England, a vessel bound for anything 
but a May-day voyage, as the master, Henry Hudson, wished 'to 
discover a passage by the North Pole to Japan and China.' That 
old pole, you see, was as much an object of uncertainty and yet 
fascination as to-day. Hudson and his men went to church a few 
days before sailing, and all received the communion, — a common 
practice in those days. The master seems to have been of a rev- 
erent make, for, sailing north, getting among fog and ice, and see- 
ing at last land beyond, he named one high point ' Mount of 
God's Mercy.' He pushed ahead in various directions, but he 
found no break in the cold wall that God has built around the 
pole, and Hudson wisely came home. The next time Hudson 



58 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 



sailed to the northeast, trying to find the East Indies. He saw 
wliales and seals, and roaring bears, and ice, and fog, but no break 
in the wall. Anyway, the sea has its perils, but up Nortli they 
are terrible. Hudson wisely once more pointed his vessel for J^]ng- 
land. His next voyage was luider the auspices of the Dutch 
East India Company, and the persistent Hudson still aimed to find 




THE SEA ilAs ITS I'ElilLS 



a break in that icy wall, and reach China by the northeast pas- 
sage. But God sometimes blocks a sailor's course because he would 
have him go in a better direction. Wind, and fog, and ice, so 
opposed Hud.son's vessel, the Half Moon, that he resolved to turn 
about and ^try a Western voyage ; and after various adventures, he 
reached the coast of America. Captain John Smith had told him 
that you could get to the Western Pacific by a passage south of 



DOIVM THE HUDSON. 59 

Virginia, and Hudson tried to find tliat gateway. He hunted 
in vain, gave it up, and then coasted along the sliore. One day 
he entered an opening in the coast, wliich lie left behind only to 
push farther and farther in, the Half Moon at last floating on 
this noble and beautiful river. It is thought that he pushed up 
as far as the present location of Albany, but how different the 
country then from now ! There was only an island shaded by 
forests, interrupted perhaps by patches of corn that savages culti- 
vated, where the horse cars and steam cars and carriages of the 
great city of New York go rattling and rumbling along its busy 
streets, filled with throngs of people! In 1610, Hudson sailed 
again from England to find that hard thing to catch, a north- 
west passage. The London Company now sent him out in the 
Discovery. Reaching Iceland, he saw signs of trouble among his 
crew. His mate, Juet, was disposed to be a i-ebel. Sailing west, 
Hudson at last entered the strait named after him. He gave 
singular names to places that he saw. A hilly country covered 
with snow, he called ' Desire Provokes.' Islands near which the 
Discovery almost ran upon rocks, he called the ' Isles of God's 
Mercies.' A point of land he named ' Hold with Hope.' Into the 
great bay that now carries his name, he steadily pushed, going 
south till he sailed across it. He hoped this tract of water led 
to the Western seas, but he learned the truth, and turned about 
to the north. How many enemies he met, — disobedience among 
the men, hunger, cold, and a winter in that land of ice. They 
were released by the warm weather, the next year, from their 
prison ; but before sailing, with tears in his eyes, the master of 
the Discovery made a distribution of food — about a pound of bread 
to each man. One day there was open rebellion among the crew. 
It is said that Hudson had been irritable — and he certainlv had 



6o ALL ABOARD LOR TILE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

enou'i'li to make him so — and tliat his conduct was not always 
wise. But that did not excuse the cruelty of the mutineers. They 
bound Hudson and put him in an open boat. There were sick 
men, also, who were forced into it. The carpenter was allowed to 
remain in the ship, but he spiritedly refused to stay, and joined 
his master, taking an iron pot, a little meal and some other pro- 
visions, a musket, also, with some powder and shot. Hudson's 
young son was put into the boat also. The ship's sails were set, 
and the Discovery moved off, dragging the boat from her stern. 
They were clear of the ice in a few hours, and, having shown 
thus much mercy, they cut the boat's painter, and it drifted away 
on that cold, desolate sea. That was the last ever seen of Henry 
Hudson and his wretched boat's crew. I know of no sadder pict- 
ure than that boat drifting away, a speck at last on that Arctic 
sea, wickedly left behind in that dreary, God-forsaken spot, its 
crew to die of hunger, one after the other." 

" But what became of the mutineers in the Discovery ? " asked 
Rob. 

" Well, boys, there is such a thing as retribution in this world. 
Wrong doing will have to pay a bill some time, and it may be 
called to pay the bill pretty quick. One kind of penalty, the 
harm to conscience and character, of course follows at once. 
Something else may come speedily, and if not here it will else- 
where. They made out to worry along, and about the last of 
July, they saw Digges' Cape. Landing, they had an encounter 
with the savages. Pushing off in their boat, they were followed 
by a volley of arrows, and the commander of the mutineers was 
killed outright, and his body was thrown into the sea that day; 
the same water that by this time may have received his captain. 
Another of the leading conspirators was severely wounded and 



DOWN THE HUDSON. 6i 

died in great agony the same day. Four in all weie killed. 
The rest were very willing to get away from America. Their 
stock of food ran very low. In their hunger, they were obliged 
to eat their candles. They fried the bones of fowls in tallow, 
mixing vinegar with it, and considered the compound ' a great dainty.' 

" They steered for Ireland, but they became so weak that they 
fould not stand up to steer, and every one was obliged to sit when 
at the helm. The last of the leading mutineers died of hunger and 
his body undoubtedly went into the sea to join that, perhaps, of his 
murdered captain. The crew now had one fowl left to divide 
among them. They expected that only death was before them, 
and gave up all care of the ship. Suddenly some one cried, ' A 
sail ! ' There it was, sitting on the water like a duck, and a 
very hospitable duck it was, taking care of them and leading 
them to an Irish harbor. Then they went to England." 

" Poor Hudson ! " said Ralph. '" He little knew what was before 
him in the future when he sailed up this river." 

" But if he was neglected and left to himself in that boat, he 
has received attention enough since, for his name is spoken a good 
many times every day." 

This was Rick's opinion : 

" The old pole ! I wouldn't go near it. When cold weather 
comes, ice and snow, I had rather be at home. The kind of 
sailing I like to do then, is in a sleigh. Get a good team full 
and go to Lexington, say, or over to Sudbury ! " 

" Yes," added Ralph, " and Rick likes to blow a horn on the 
way, scaring all the old women in the farmhouses." 

While the members of the Antelope Guild were discussing the 
expediency of voyages to the North Pole, a colored waiter was 
on his way to the stateroom, with uncle Nat's treat. 



62 



ALL .4 /WARD FOR THE LAKES AND ALOUNTALiWS. 



He was old enough to be bald, and the two clumps of hair 
on the sides of his pate were destined never to see black again, 
unless he dyed them. He stooped over his well-loaded tray, 
and at the door of the stateroom, lingered a moment, resting an 
entl of the tray on the door-knob. He chanced to see the Guild- 
notice on the door and began curiously to spell out the words : 
" A meetin' — will — be — held — in dis — per-partmen' — ob — der — 
re-re-gorgun-ize — what's dat ? Antelope? Dat ole ship turn up 
here ? You stop, waitaw, an' jis' reads furder an' don' makes a 




RICK'S WINTER SHIP ON THE WAY TO LEXINGTON. 

fool ob yerself. Antelope — dat's de name, sure." His excite- 
ment now was intense and he read on : " Ant'lope Gii-gu-ile — 
No — no — Gill, dat's nat'ral soun', honey! But read on, kase 
yer can read. Past an' presen' — members — ob — de — Gill — cord- 
wood — no — no ! Fur shame on ye ! Cor-dial-ly in-ter-bited — 
no — vited. What dat's name? Ralph Rog-hog — no! Rogers I If 




BUMBLE-BEE AND FAMILY. 



DOWN THE HUDSON. 65 

dis ain't de greatest 'spise, an' I b'lon' to dat Gill, sure as ye 
born, honey ! A pas' member, an' I'm gwine to be faithful ! " 

Chuckling away, grinning from ear to ear, bobbing up and 
down those two lonely knobs of hair, the waiter entered the 
stateroom, presenting his tray and saying, " Good mornin' to ye, 
Cap'in Stevens, an' all de young folks ! A pas' member ob de 
Guil' has arribed ! " 

" Save us alive ! if here isn't Bumble, our old cook on board 
the Antelojpe ! " declared uncle Nat. 

It was indeed Solomon Bumble, better known as •' old Bumble- 
bee." 

" An' here's my fab-rite ! " said Bumble-bee, approaching Rick. 
" Honey, yer makes me think more an' more ob my gran'son, 
Neberchadnizzah ." 

Ralph and Rob grinned at this compliment to Rick, but the 
copy of "Neberchadnizzah" took it in excellent spirit and said 
he was glad to see " Mr. Bumble " and he hoped his " folks " 
were all well. 

"Dey are all well, an' oh, Cap'n, I hab a lubly little spot up 
near Central Park, in de city — New York, yer know. I reside 
dar," said Bumble-bee with pride, whose home was in one of 
those rough rookeries clustered near the Park. 

" I didn'c know you went there after you left the ship," said 
the Captain. 

" Dat's my res'dence, an' I hab a lubly fam'ly. When we 
gets all dar, Alexandrah, Abram Lincoln, Cle'patrah, George Wash- 
in'ton, Harr'et Beecher Stowe, an' Juleeus Ceesah — I hab free 
away, an' Neberchadnizzah's fader is in Charlestown — when we 
all gets dar an' a-laffin — it's a lubly place." 

" I am glad of that. Do you run on this boat ? " 



66 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



"Only a spar' lian' jes now. My reg'lar place is 'tween New 

York an' Niag'ray, on de cars." 

'• Oh, we shall see you again then, I hope. We go there next 

Jk[onday, and if we meet, you come to any Guild meeting we 

have." 

" Pars' members glad to jine," replied Bumble-bee, bowing him- 
self out, and casting a 
last fond glance toward 
Rick. 

The Guild went out to 
■watch the river scenery 
that the misty rain had 
ceased to hide. 

" There are the Cats- 
kills," exclaimed uncle 
Nat, pointing in a west- 
erly direction. The rain- 
clouds were still dragging 
their gray fringed robes 
over the glorious range, 
but every moment broader 
and broader surfaces of 
mountain-slope were ex- 
posed. "We are tracking 
the Appalachian range 

TiiK hud-Son from the batieby. g^ji^^ ^.^^j ggg bovs." 

Below Newburgh, the steamer glided among the Highlands. Up, 
up, from the water's glassy flow, shot the rocky cliffs. The boys 
saw Cro' Nest, at the foot of whose precipice, fronting the river, 
Captain Kidd, the pirate, buried, or is said to have buried, some 




DO WN THE HUDSON. 



67 



of that treasure that the sands of so many hiding-places cover. 

Famous Storm King they watched from the steamer's deck. 

Storm King that the old Dutchman thought to be like a lump 
of butter, and so 



called it Boter- 
berg. In the High- 
lands is West 
Point, where our 
government has 
established a mil- 
itary school for 
the education of 
officers for the 
army. 

" In the Revolu- 
tionary War," said 
uncle Nat, " all 
this neighborhood 
was of great im- 
portance. It was 
necessary that our 
people should have 
free communication between New England and the country west 
and south of us. Then there were the British in New York 
City, and the Hudson River naturally was a roadway between 
them and their forces in Canada. Consequently our Cono-ress 
directed that forts should be built here, and at. West Point 
they will show you a piece of an iron chain that was stretched 
across the Hudson in the Revolutionary War. These measures just 
barred out the British, but left an open door by which our troops 




VIEW riiO.M FORT PUTNAM. 



68 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

in this part of the country could have access to New England, 
and New England was also sure of a free passage over the river. 
There, boys, up there was an old fort, in ruins now, but a very 
prominent place once, Fort Putnam. Fine view there." 

The steamer shot steadily forward, now cutting into the dark 
still shadow of the rocky shores, then gliding out into spaces of 
shining water, ruffling the shadow and the sunshine, and whiten- 
ing both with flakes of foam. Uncle Nat's conversation was 
directed toward the Revolutionary War and its Generals. 

" One of the generals that New Englanders especially like to 
honor is ■ Old Put.' It was he, General Putnam, who chose West 
Point for military purposes. General Washington wished to pick 
out some locality for fortifications that would command the river, 

and Putnam, at Washington's request, 
inspecting the neighborhood of the 
river, picked out West Point," said 
uncle Nat. 

"Putnam was the man that escaped 
from the British at Horseneck," re- 
marked Rob. 

" Tell it, please," said Rick. 
" Well," replied Rob blushing to 
iliscover that he had become so sud- 
denly a biographer, " I only know 
ih^nam"" that in Greenwich, in Connecticut, 

there was a steep descent down a hill. There were steps here 
to help foot passengers up and down. General Putnam, with 
some of his men, was met near this place by a British force larger 
than his own. Old Put tried to stand his ground, but he had to 
give it up, and told his men to scatter down below the hill in 





PUTNAM'S ESCAPE AT HOKSENECK. 



DO \VN THE HUDSON. 



7« 



a swamp. He was on horseback, and the best thing he thought 
he could do, was to go down those steps — the easiest way he could 
on horseback. So away he went. Whether his horse went at such 
a breakneck rate as the picture of it makes out he did, I can't 
say, but I guess he went fast enough. Anyway, the British horse- 
men who watched him 
from the top of the steps 
thought it best not to 
follow, but sent their 
respects after him in the 
shape of a bullet that 
went through Old Put's 
hat. Put didn't care. 
When he got to the 
bottom, he just turned 
in his saddle and waved 
his sword to the British 
troopers. The British 
general very politely sent 
him a new hat, but I 
guess if he had had the head that the hat was to cover, he 
would have taken precious good care not to let that go." 

Pnst Anthony's Nose on one side, and Dunderberg on the other, 
glided the steamer. Uncle Nat pulled out of his pocket a book. 

" Rick." he said. " you read about Anthony's Nose in Washington 
Irvivg. T have found the place. Bead it aloud, please." 

Rick began : " It must be known, then, that the nose of Anthony 
the trumpeter was of a very lusty size, strutting boldly from his 
countenance like a mountain of Golconda, being sumptuously bedecked 
with rubies and other precious stones — the true regalia of a king 




WASHINGTON'S IlEADQlAUTEliS AT JiEWBUKGH. 



72 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

of good fellows which jolly Bacchus grants to all who bouse it 
heartily at the flagon. Now thus it happened that bright and early 
in the morning the good Anthony," — " Should think he was 'good,' 
the old toper with his red-pepper nose ! " interjected Eick, — " having 
washi'd his burly visage, was leaning over the quarter-railing of 
the galley, contemplating it in the glassy wave below. Just at 
this moment the illustrious sun, breaking in all his splendor from 
behind a higli bluff of the Highlands, did dart one of his most 
potent beams full upon the refulgent nose of the sounder of brass, 
the reflection of which shot straightway down, hissing hot, into 
the water, and killed a mighty sturgeon that was disporting be- 
side the vessel. This huge monster, being with infinite laboj 
hoisted on board, furnished a luxurious repast to all the crew, 
being accounted of excellent flavor, excepting about the wound, 
where it smacked a little of brimstone ; and this, on my veracity, 
was the first time that ever sturgeon was eaten in these parts 
by Christian people. When this astonishing miracle became known 
to Peter Stuyvesant, and that he tasted of the unknown fish, 
he, as may well be supposed, marvelled exceedingly ; and as a 
monument tliereof, he gave the name of Anthony's Nose to a 
stout promontory in the neighborhood, and it has continued to be 
called Anthony's Nose ever since that time." 

When the steamer passed the ledges of Stony Point, uncle Nat said : 
" There is another Revolutionary point of interest. The British 
contrived to get possession of the fort on Stony Point, and then it 
was that General Wayne — ' Mad Anthony Wayne ' — resolved to retake 
it. It was in the dead of a summer night that ' Mad Anthony ' led 
his men against the fort. The garrison gave him a welcome of 
bullets and grape, and Wayne was shot in the head. That did not 
stop him, but he called out, ' March on ! carry me into the fort, 




WEST POINT SKETCH. 



DOWN THE HUDSON. 



75 



for I will die at the head of my column.' He went in, and the 
enemy went out, and how our men hurrahed over the victory ! " 

. The Tappan Sea was one wide, sunny stretch of pearls that flashed 
in the breasts of thousands of little waves that a fresh wind turned 
up. Here the Hudson broadens into a beautiful sheet ten miles 
long and from two to five miles wide. Steamers were puffing pre- 




CAriLKK (IF .^iUNV IMilNT. 



tentiously about, schooners slowly sailing up river, trim yachts catch- 
ing in their canvas all the breezes out wandering that day. Over- 
head, was a thin, lace-like veil of white cloud-flecks that the sun 
had modestly drawn over his face. As the steamer neared Tarry- 
town, Captain Nat said : 

" The Hudson is crowded with Revolutionary memories, and in 
this neighborhood, one thinks of the brave, but unfortunate Andr^." 



76 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

" Ask Ralph," whispered Rick, who had heard Ralph recently 
repeat at a Concord school examination, an account of Arnold and 
Andre, and desired to show that his side of the house knew some- 
thing about the Revolution, as well as Rob Merry. 

" Ralph, cannot you tell me something about the Arnold and 
Andre affair ? " inquired uncle Nat. 

The travelling guide-book of Concord began in true schoolboy 
style, first saying that it was no credit to him that he remem- 
bered what was so recently learned : 

" Benedict Arnold was a traitor of the blackest dye. Having 
obtained command of all the American forts in the Highlands by 
his position as head officer at West Point, he proceeded to carry 
on a treasonable correspondence already begun with Clinton, the 
British commander. Major John Andrd was adjutant-general of the 
British army in North America, and when Arnold sent word that 
he would like to meet Andre and discuss plans with him, Andre came 
to the British ship of war, Vulture, anchored in Haverstraw Bay. 
There Arnold engaged to send a man in a boat, with a flag of truce. 
It was a moonlight night, and the boat rowed by one Smith — he 
had muffled oars • — came off from the shore and took Andre on 
board. The traitor Arnold was waiting in some bushes to receive 
Andre when he landed, and the two rode off together to Smith's 
house. Arnold, the villain ! there agreed to surrender Fort Defiance 
to Clinton, who was to come with an army. Besides, Arnold was to 
send off for help to Washington, who was in the neighborhood, and 
it was hoped that it could be so arranged that Clinton could bag 
Washington and this reinforcement." (Rick here nodded his head 
approvingly. At school, Ralph had said " capture," but " bag " was 
decidedly the more forcible word.) " Andre did not try to go back 
by the Vulture, as the American guns had obliged her to retire. 



DOWN THE HUDSON. 



77 



So he put on a citizen's dress, and having obtained passes from 
Arnold, started off in company with Smith, to go by land to New 
York. Oh ! I forgot to say " (an omission a little mortifying to 




CAPTURE OF ANDRE. 



Rick) " that Arnold was to have a brigadiership in the British army, 
and some money. Well, Andre and Smith started off. Smith accom- 
panied Andre as far as he thought was necessary, and left him, 
telling him to go through White Plains to New York, as the British 
were in that neighborhood. Andre, though, made a turn at a fork 
in the road, and journeyed along another way. That day, John 
Paulding and two other Americans were out in this neighborhood 



78 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

on the watch for British parties. Tliere were four other Americans 
in the band of Continentals, and Jolin Paulding — poor, but loyal, 
and their leader — had set the four to watching at another point. 
It was noon. Andre was coming up the liill from Sleepy Hollow, 
and Paulding was playing cards with his two companions. Paulding, 
hearing the sound of horses" feet, stepped out of the trees, and 
presenting his gun, asked Andre which way he was going. 

'"Gentlemen, 1 hope you belong to our party?' said Andre. 

"'Which party?' asked the American. 

" ' The lower party,' said Andre, meaning the British. 

Paulding assented. 

" ' 1 am a British officer,' said Andre, ' out on particular business, 
and I hope you will not detain me a minute.' 

" Then Paulding told him to get off his horse. Andre saw that 
he had made a mistake. He showed his pass from Arnold, and 
when the Americans searched him, and found three parcels under 
each stocking, and among these, plans, giving, in Arnold's hand- 
writing, statements of the works and resources at West Point, 
Andr^ subsequently offered a hundred guineas, or any sum, if his 
captors would release him. 

" ' No,' cried John Paulding, ' not for ten thousand guineas.' 

" Andre was marched oft" a prisoner, only to be hung at a later 
day as a spy. West Point was saved, and Washington was not 
taken. Arnold was treated slightingly. He was neglected by the 
British to whom he fled, and knew what it was to be despised 
both at home and in England, whither he went, suffering for 
want of his daily bread even." 

Ralph here closed, omitting a very spirited compliment to the 
American patriot whom gold could not buy. For the omission of 
this speech, that stirred to envy every Concord High School boy 




ADlIiOXDAC'K GAME. 



DOWN THE HUDSON. 8i 

who listened, and drew praises from all the girls, Rick was sorry. 

Past Sunnyside, the home of Washington Irving, sped the steamer; 
past many residences peeping out of bowers of trees and shrubbery ; 
past the Palisades, lifting boldly their walls of rock, as if to hail that 
shining conqueror, t' ■> river, marching in triumph from the Adiron- 
dacks to the sea. It was Rob Merry, tliat bold, experienced 
hunter from the White Mountains, who made tliis remark : 

"I am just spoiling, boys, for some Adirondack game." 

Rick looked with admiration on this brawny hunter from the 
hills. Anxious to show that he had some knowledge of moun- 
tains, he exclaimed : 

" Oh ! the Adirondacks are a part of the great Appalachian 
eystem, and Mount Marcy is over five thousand feet high." 

Uncle Nat overheard Rob Merry's longing for Adirondack game, 
but said nothing in reply. He went, though, to Bumblebee, and, 
as the result of that interview, the waiter came to tlie state- 
room door, again bearing a tray, and smiling and bowing, left 
his load and withdrew. 

Said uncle Nat, lifting the cover from a steaming dish, " I 
heard that one of you was spoiling for some Adirondack game." 

There was a rich venison steak, and with it went other 
appetizing dishes. The boys were delightedly surprised, and even 
young Nimrod, the mighty sportsman, was comforted. 

Finally, the steamer ran its sharp nose up to a North River 
pier, to be assailed by bawling hackmen and squeaking venders 
of bananas and oranges. The voyage by a Hudson River boat 
was ended. 




TilE PILGRIMS SUNDAY-liKST AT CLAKKE S ISLAND. 



CHAPTER V. 



OFF TO NIAGARA. 



nr*IIE Antelope Guild bade good-by to its ^^ pas member," Solomon 
-'- Bumble, and went to a hotel in New York City, where 
uncle Nat intended to pass Sunday. 

" We won't travel Sundays when there is no necessity for it," 
he said to the boys. " We will rest here ; you know the Pil- 
grims, hunting up a honie, stopped Sunday, resting on Clarke's 
Island." 

And it was a day full of rest. When one looked up to the 

bright, quiet sky, it seemed as if all that space of light and 

rest were coming down to the earth, and uncle Nat and the boys 

walked in it. There were quiet hours at the hotel, and then, too, 

there were services at one of the old city churches. So peaceful, 

82 



OFF TO NIAGARA. 83 

yet cheerful, was the latter, it seemed as if it must be the threshold 
of a stairway leading up to that beautiful sky above — even higher, 
into the presence of the Heavenly Father. 

Monday morning came. The boys had been told by uncle Nat 
that he wished to see them in his room after breakfast. 

" We start for Niagara this forenoon, but we shall not get there 
for a week, probably. We go by way of several interesting 
spots in this State — Lake Mohonk, Saratoga Lake, and so on. But 
I want you to be thinking of Niagara, and also be getting ready 
for it. And, boys, I think the Guild had better be reading up 
and writing on some subjects connected with the Falls." 

"Where are the books, uncle Nat?" inquired Ralph. 

" Oh, I came provided with those — a whole box of them. 
Don't be frightened, for it is not a big box, and they will 
help you." 

" All right," replied Rob Merry ; " the Guild will do its best." 

" Rob, I would like to have you take the geology of Niagara. 
Tell what 3'ou can about the rocks, and what that has to do 
with the past and future of the Falls. Ralph can give any facts 
about their size, their source, and their relation to the Great 
Lakes of the countiy. Rick can give an account of any battle 
that happened in that part of the country, and I will tell 
about the Suspension Bridge, and that style of bridge-making. 
Now we have our sul^jects. Soon as we can get read}', we will 
start for Lake Mohonk." 

A train on the Erie Road rushed the Guild away, and tea that 
evening they took at Lake Mohonk. 

" We must see the sun rise from Sky-Top, boys," said uncle 
Nat. " Sleep toward morning with your eyes open." 

In the morning, a party of four, well-wrapped in shawls and 



84 



ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 



overcoats, watched from Sky-Top the eastern skies. Somewhere 
along the liorizon, and under that veil of cloud reaching down 
almost to tlie earth, the sun was ready to break fortli- In the 




glowing light, the clouds seemed almost tremulous. There was a 

sliarpening, a shooting of the light ; it forced its way through 

rents in the cloud, poured out in fiery rivers, spread out in 

molten lakes. And yet between the lower fringe of the cloud and 



OFF TO NIAGARA. 



H 



the horizon, there was no sun, only a narrow, golden sea of 
light. Suddenly Rob shouted : '' Hurrah ! That's the way it looked 
on the White Mountains ! There he is ! " 

And there he was, certainly, that bright ember-end on the 
horizon's edge. It was quickly a dome of ruddy flame, far away 
in the sky. 

" Now, look about you, boys," cried uncle Nat. " We are three 
hundred feet higher than the lake, and have a good post here." 

The boys watched the peaceful sweep of the blue Berkshire 
Hills : they saw the Highlands of the Hudson ; they tracked the 
valleys along whose channels the morning breeze was driving a 
light fleet of gray mist ; they followed with the eye the course 
of the ridges of the Shawangunk Mountains. It was an impressive 
hour. 

After breakfast, uncle Nat and his party looked off upon the 
lake. As the sun poured down its glory and brightened the waters, 
the lake seemed like a basin of silver, but the sides of the basin 
were massive walls of quartz. 

"It is not a very big sheet — three quarters of a mile long," 
said uncle Nat, watching the pleasure boats darting across the 
waters — " but it is worth seeing. See Paltz Point ! how that 
stands up, and stands out, too." 

Uncle Nat told his party they Avould "just skip up to Saratoga 
Lake," but they first returned to the main line of the Erie Road 
and followed that awhile. 

" I want you to get some idea of the Delaware River valley," 
said uncle Nat." 

What a land of enchantment the crystal eyes of the Delaware 
look upon! Massive ridges plumed with fir and pine, meadows 
emerald-carpeted by the summer, brooks that are splashes of 



86 



ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 



molten silver, and far overhead a sky that is the outer, azure 
wall of Dreamland. 

And the river itself is as beautiful as its surroundings ; now a 
window set in a forest framework that sun and shadow painted, 
or a mirror holding in its lap some broad mountain slope. 

" The Delaware is not only a beautiful, but a most useful river." 
said uncle Nat ; " take the Delaware out of the commercial life 




GLIMPSES OF THE DELAWAliE NEAK COLLICOON. 



of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and there would be 
a big hole left. Fill up the Delaware at Philadelphia, and what 
would that great city do ? " 

But from this region the Guild branched off, and as uncle Nat 



OFF TO NIAGARA. 



87 



said, they made just as good time for Saratoga Lake as tliey 
possibly could. 

'' The Saratoga season has not set in yet, boys. We are on its 
thin edge, bnt you can imagine how it may be." 




EAST AND WEST BRANCHES OF THE DELAWARE NEAR HANCOCK. 

As they looked upon the pretentious hotels of Saratoga, the lively 
imagination of the boys had no difficulty in ■ peopling liotels and 
avenues with health and pleasure-seekers. Saratoga can find room 
for forty thousand guests at very little warning, and it has become 
a notable spot for conventions of various kinds. The Guild drove 
along that beautiful street, the Boulevard, a hundred feet wide, to 
Saratoga Lake, a pretty sheet, eight miles long and two and a 
half wide. Then on their return they tested the waters at various 
springs. 

" What is it," asked Rick, " that makes these waters so healthy ? 
I should rather have a good drink of Sandy Pond wati^r at home." 



88 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



" Theie are various mineral substances underground here that give 
the water its medicinal value. Take Congress Spring water that 
is so famous. 1 heard a man praising it this morning, and lie 
said it had bicarbonate of magnesia, bicarbonate of lime, chloride 
of sodium, carbonic acid gas — and I stopped remembering the list 
beyond. This has no interest for you healthy young chaps, but 
it throws an old medicine toper into ecstasy. He feels like having 
a pipe laid right from Saratoga into his chamber," said uncle Nat. 




SAKATDGA LAKE 



" I should want it laid right out again," was Rick's comment. 

Uncle Nat shook his head. 

" There is no telling. You may come here some time, wrapped 
in flannels, going on crutches, rheumatic, wheezy, and " — 

"Oh, stop, do!" 

"How did they find out that these Springs were valuable?" asked 
Ralph. 

" I think I heard Rob tell about it last night." 

" Oh ! Well, I just saw it somewhere that Sir William Johnson, 
who was a famous man in these parts in the last century, received 
an ugly wound in a battle, that brought on sickness. The Mohawks 
knew about the Saratoga Springs. They were very friendly to 




AN IDKAr. PICNK 



OFF TO NIAGARA. 



9' 



Sir William, and held a meeting about it, and offered to take Sir Wil- 
liam to the ' Medicine Spring of the Great Spirit.' So they brought 
him here. I think they had to take him on a litter. He drank 
of the Spring water, 
and was helped in a 
very few days. He 
was so pleased that 
he told about it to 
one of our generals, 
and people got hold 
of it throns;h John- 
son. That was a lit- 
tle over a hundred 
years ago." 

" Well," said uncle 
Nat, " that is the 
way they will bring 
Rick — on a litter." 

" No ; I am going 
to Sandy Pond, and 
going to walk," said 
the loyal Concord boy. 

The Guild rode 
south from Saratoga 
to Schenectady, and 
sped along the New 
York Central to Utica, 
and by the Utica and Black River Road to Trenton Falls. 

"We can only stop a day here, boys," said uncle Nat, as they 
left the cars, " and after lunch we will go directly to the Cascades." 




TRENTON FALL.'!. 



92 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

They went to the place that the Indians entitled Kuyahora ; a 
name that ends, if it does not begin, with a sound musical as that 
of flowing water. " Slanting water," the dusky tribes of the forest 
meant by that rippling stream of sound — Kuyahora. Down through 
a rocky gorge whose walls run up seventy, a hundred and fifty, 
and two hundred feet, run and rush, tumble and shoot, plunge, and 
crash, and foam, five cascades, one after the other, till the bright, 
flashing' water is two hundred feet lower down than when it went 

O 

over the first round in this rocky ladder. 

The boys were in the cars the next day, bound for Watkins 
Glen. 

" Ralph," said Rob, " I feel very much like a picnic." 
" I should think we were on a picnic, Rob, every day." 
" Yes ; but I just want to get off into the woods in true camp 
style. I don't mean an ideal picnic, where you have ladies, but 
a camper's time ; and we will have one at Watkins Glen, and I 
will tell you of a plan I have." 
"All right." 

" Watkins Glen ! " uncle Nat was singing out. " Here we are ! " 
Watkins Glen is in the neighborhood of Seneca Lake. Its high, 
ragged walls suggest an operation by a Titan with his battle-axe, who 
brought down not the edge, but the head of his axe on the rocks 
in one crashing blow that made a long and deep, but not very clean 
cut. The path that tourists travel to see the Glen is, or was, two 
and a half miles long. The ground rises eight hundred feet in 
about three miles, so that the stream in the Glen has a chance 
to leap in cascades, to shoot in straight, arrow-like lines, to whirl 
and gambol in tumbling, foaming masses, or rest, and sleep, and 
dream in dark, shadowy pools. 

"There, boys," said uncle Nat. leading his party into the Glen, 




WATKINS' GLEN. 



OFF TO NIAGARA. 95 

and reaching the famous Glen Cathedral, " this is almost a thousand 
feet long. Look at those walls ! rock for three hundred feet. The 
cathedral has a pavement of rock, you see. A wild, grand spot." 

" You might call this the cathedral font " suggested Ralph 
when they reached a basin in the pavement, holding the purest, 
clearest water. 

" No," said uncle Nat, " that is already named. They wanted 
a fancy, gimcrack name, and they called it ' The Pool of the 
Nymphs.' " 

" Oh, yes," said Ralph, in disappointed tones. 

Farther on they saw the crystal masses of the Central Cascade 
as they came crashing and flashing down into a deep black pool. 
Then there were the Triple Cascade and Rainbow Falls, Pluto 
Falls, Glen of the Pools — a long line of attractive centres — but 
everywhere rock and water, the water chiseling with sharp, crystal 
edge into the rock, and the rock guarding with its rugged, shadowy 
walls, all those pellucid treasures of water. 

" What puzzles me," exclaimed Rob, " is what has done all this." 

" I think one of the icebergs uncle Nat told about at Concord 
got in here, and went to grinding," said Ralph, " and just cut all 
this out." 

" I am afraid that sort of wheel would soon have been worn 
out. Then you say ' got in here.' What made the hole where it 
lodged? I don't know," said the puzzled sea captain, scratching 
his head. " I can run a ship better than I can explain sucli things. 
It looks to me as if an earthquake ' got in here ' and made a 
terrible split, long and ragged. Somebody thinks the hilly country 
here through which the Glen runs, was once an island in a long 
lake, and — and — really, I don't understand the process," said the 
perplexed mariner, " but I believe all the waters gave way, it is 



96 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



thought, for some reason, and Seneca Lake took its shape. This 
hilly ridge was then hit in the centre by masses of water, and as 
the waters of the lake no longer supported it on the sides, the 
mountain concluded to split. Of course after the split, the running 
of water through it would cut it down deeper and make it wider." 

" I will tell you," said Rick triumphantly, •" wliat hit the 
mountain in the centre." 

" What ? " inquired uncle Nat. 

"The comet!" 

Thev all concluded that Rick was right, and that the comet 




THE KEAL PICNIC. 



was the ponderous beetle that struck such a heavy blow and made 
Watkins Glen. 

Rob and Ralph had their "picnic" while at Watkins Glen. 
They donned camping suits and tucked their pants into their 
boots, in true hunter style. 

" Too bad ! " declared Rob. 



OFF TO NIAGARA. 97 

"What's too bad?" asked Ralph. 

" To think that you may see a bear and not have a shooter 
with you." 

" Did you ever come near one ? " 

" Oh, yes ; two." 

Eob did not say that one bear he saw was a dead one in its 
trap, and tlie other he ran from, as readers of Bark Cahbi and 
Tent in the Notch remember. 

" Oh, for a shooter ! " pined Rob. 

As it was, the boys only took jack-knives with them, and 
went whittling into the depths of the silent forests, fragrant with 
the hemlock and the spruce. They sat down amid an undergrowth 
of ferns, and made with those formidable weapons, their jack- 
knives, a pitiless assault on two maple branches. 

"What is that plan you were going to tell me about, Rob, at 
our first opportunity to get off in this fashion?" 

" Oh, 1 have not forgotten. Well, I am wondering how it would 
do to close up our trip with a wagon-ride to the Winnepesaukee ? " 

" Wagon-ride ? " 

" Yes ; capital fun ! " declared Rob with snapping eyes. " Of 
course you know that is a lake in New Hampshire. My idea is 
to start somewhere in the country, going in a big wagon. We 
could take a tent with us and pitch it on the ground, or we 
could sleep in the wagon and pitch the tent somehow over it. 
We could take cooking apparatus with us, grub too, and it would 
be just lovely, cooking our own meals on the way. We could 
go as far as we pleased each day. Oh, it would be just 
splendid ! " 

"Hurrah!" said Ralph. 

" Will you go, Ralph ? All hands will go, I hope." 



98 ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

"Yes 3 put iny luuiie down for one seat in the VViunepesaukee 
stage." 

"Now, haven't we had a good time on this our picnic? I call 
it a real picnic." 

"Splendid, though — it — would — be sort of nice to have some 
of the luucli they have at ' ideal picnics,' " said Ralph. 

"Y-e-s," assented Hob. 







" OFF ON A PICNIL 



CHAPTER VI. 



AT NIAGARA. 



/^H, there it is!" 
^^ shouted Ralph en- 
thusiastically. 

"Where, where?" 
pleaded Rick. " Tell 
me ! " 

" See, see ! " cried 
uncle Nat, and Rob 
Merry called out ex- 
citedly, " Three cheers ! " 
All this outbreak 
was occasioned by 
Niagara Falls. As uncle 
Nat and those three 
enthusiastic boys — or, 
the three boys and that 
enthusiastic uncle Nat 
— crossed Suspension 
Bridge in the railway train, they eagerly crowded to the car win- 
dows and looked out. 

" Niagara, and no mistake ! " said uncle Nat. 
It was Niagara indeed, a bold, massive wall of water. From its 
base, there rolled up a large volume of snow-white vapor. The party 

99 




SPLASHING DOWN. 



loo ALL ABOARLJ L'OR TLLE LAKES A.\D MOUNTALNS. 

watched the Falls evL-ry moment that was jiermitted tlicm, and 
could talk of nothing else. 

" Now, boys," said uncle Nat, when they had taken breakfast at 
their hotel, " let's have an understanding. We have plenty of time, 
and we won't try to do up the Falls in a day. We came by the 
morning train, and so can start out early, and we won't ride round, 
but we wdl gu it on foot. Then we shall be independent, coming 
when we please, and going when we please, and not having a 
carriage tagging us about. But let us go sj'stematically. We will 
take the American side first. That is patriotic. But let us go " — 

Here uncle Nat stopped. He was addressing the members of 
the Guild at a window of the hotel-office, when a throng of visitors 
suddenly entered, and brushing past uncle Nat, one of them — a 
lady — let a key drop on the floor. Uncle Nat gallantly stooped, 
picked it up and handed it to her. This interruption consumed a 
little time, and when uncle Nat turned, he discovered that he was 
the only member of the Guild present. He saw the skirts of Ralph 
Rogers' coat disappearing in a doorway leading out of the hotel. 
Rob and Rick had entirely vanished. 

" Where are they going ? " asked the wondering captain. 

" Ralph ! " he shouted, when he had caught up with the secretary 
of the Guild, "where — where — are you heading? And where are 
Rob and Rick ? " 

" Going to the Falls ; and there are the boys ! " 

"Where?" 

" Ahead ! " 

The two passionate sight-seekers were away ahead, Rick enthu- 
sia.stically following Rob, whom he would have passed, had the 
length of his steps corresponded with the ardor of his soul. 

" Hold on, boys ! " shouted uncle Nat, pressing eagerly ft)rward. 



AT NIAGARA. 103 

Holding on was no easy matter wlien the roar of Niagara was 
in one's ears, but uncle Nat gathered up these flying fragments of 
the Guild, and addressed them in a body : 

" Why didn't you wait, boys ? " 

" We didn't mean to desert you," replied Rob. " Rick and I 
thought you were just behind with Ralph. We thought you said, 
' Let us go.' " 

" And I supposed," said Ralph, " that you must be ahead of Rob 
and Rick. I thought, too, that you said, ' Let us go.' " 

" Oh, I hadn't finished. I meant to say, Let us go — intelli- 
gently, til inking we would stop and listen to some facts about 
the Falls first, and then visit them. That woman, though, must 
drop her key ! " 

The Guild had a laugh over their separation, and uncle Nat 
good-naturedly said, " Well, I am glad to see your ardor, and we 
will ni>w have the Falls before the facts." 

The Guild made excellent time in its journey to the Falls, and 
uncle Nat showed as much zeal as the youngest. The Cataract at 
last was before them, close at hand. 

There they stood in silence by the side of that awful roar. 
Down, down, down — forever down ! The water ever coming from 
above, breaking and foaming as if hesitating to make the terrible 
plunge, and striving to turn, then advancing in a helpless fascination 
and springing away in that giddy leap ! Ever rushing in roughness 
and raggedness toward the brink, but sweeping down in that polished, 
faultless, majestic curve of emerald ! Ever coming, but ever going ! 
On and on, yet ever down, down — forever down! And then as if 
the downward plunge had been a mistake, there were those light 
wreaths of vapor floating up out of the abyss — vapor, tinged warm, 
even crimson and golden by the sun — a spirit that struggled up out 



104 ALL ABOARD LOR TLJK LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

of the awful and hidden depths to say that all was not lost, but 
Hope still lived, and it came up to be kissed into a smile by the 
shining glory from Heaven. It was something to be seen and 
admired, but very little could be expressed beyond the usual excla- 
mations of surprise. Rick said he had thought it was " bigger." 

" Well," said uncle Nat, " the first time I saw Niagara, 1 had 
the same feeling. I don't know but tliat I was disappointed, but 
the more I looked upon the Falls, and not only took it in with 
my eyes, but tried to imagine the great quantity of water beyond 
us here, finding an outlet, there was no room for disappointment, 
but just wonder at this great thing that folks call Niagara. Now 
before we go to the Canadian side to see the Horseshoe Fall, let 
us have some of those 'facts' I spoke about. Who was to tell 
of the size and source of Niagara ? " 

" I," said the secretary, " and I am ready. I have my paper in 
my pocket." 

" We will get under a tree on Goat Island and listen to Ralph," 
said uncle Nat." 

Seated in a leafy recess on Goat Island, the Guild listened to the 
secretary : 

" Niagara Falls are on Niagara River, which runs from Lake 
Erie, and going north, flows into Lake Ontario. Through this river, 
Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Winnipeg, Winnebago and 
St. Clair discharge their waters, and in this way over one hundred 
and fifty thousand square miles of country are drained. It nas 
been estimated that nearly half the fresh water on the globe is 
in what we call 'the upper lakes,' and that eighteen million cubic 
feet of this go over the cataract here each minute. Some of the 
water in the lakes strays off through the Erie and Welland and 
Illinois canals, but this is only thought to equal fifty-two thousand 



AT NIAGARA. TOJ 

cubic feet a minute, and Niagara Falls gets eighteen millions. 
Somebody has said — Dwight — that one hundred million tons of 
water tumble over the cataract every hour, and a second some- 
body has put the current in barrels, and says it would be over 
two hundred and eleven million. We see how much water goes 
by us, and Gunning says of all the water of the lakes, that it 
makes the 'circuit of the Falls, the St. Lawrence, the ocean, vapor, 
rain, and lakes again, in one hundred and fifty-two years. A pretty 
bier wheel to turn over, and it takes some time to turn njund. 
We know that a cluster of islands divides the fall of water. On 
one side of the river we have the American Fall, that has a width 
of twelve hundred feet, and it goes down a hundred and sixty-four 
feet. The Horseshoe Fall is about twenty-four hundred feet wide, 
and six feet lower than the American. The Horseshoe is some- 
times called the Canadian Fall, but our cousins on the other side 
of the rivor must not claim too much, for the dividing line between 
them and us runs along the centre of the Horseshoe, so we own 
half of that." ("Good!" thought Rick.) "The water can't be very 
thin on the brink of the Falls, for a ship that drew eighteen feet 
of water went over the Falls, and she went clear of the rocks 
too. A good many people, first and last, have gone over the Falls. 
It is said that two dogs went over the American Fall and survived 
it, one of them making his appearance on some ferry-stairs within 
an hour after he was thrown from Goat Island bridge, and the 
throwing was a mean thing." 

" That is so," said uncle Nat. " The person throwins a doo- into 
such a pit ought to be held over it and made to shake in terror 
for one while." 

The Guild visited the Horseshoe Fall the next day, and the 
captain recalled the facts mentioned by Ralph about the sources 



io6 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAIXS. 

of Niagara's supply of water, and the vastness of the volume here 
finding outlet. As they stood and watched tliat great breadtli of 
foain-flecked water making then its awful plunge, they thought 
of the wide surface of lake after lake, their great depths also, 
represented in this cataract plunge. 

"Wliy," said Rob Merry commenting on it afterwards, "it 
seemed to nie as if I could see Lake Superior and all those 
other lakes coming forward in a body down luo river, and rushing 
over Niagara's brink." 

" And how all those drops of water will get back even in a 
hundred and fifty-two years, I don't see," added Rick. 

Who does see ? Who does understand the workings of those 
laws so far-reaching and powerful, so minute in their grasp as to 
take up the lakes in little drops of vapor, and yet so strong as to 
transport the water back to its old place, and then send it shooting 
and shining and roaring over Niagara again ? There was one word 
that answered all the boys' inward questionings, as to the source of 
this power — God — and the thought of him filled a larger place 
in their hearts. 

They visited the " Cave of the Winds." Dressed in waterproof 
suits and looking like Cape Cod fishermen of various sizes, they 
went down a long stairway, then following a path that runs to 
the cave. Uncle Nat had made this explanation to them before 
starting : 

" A rock that is called shale, you will find at the lower part 
of the cliff over which the waters rush. Above the shale is a hard 
limestone. The shale is softer, and wears away quicker, leaving 
a hollow there which the limestone caps." 

And what a " hollow," or cave, the buys and uncle Nat found 
there ! On one side, that dismal, dungeon-recess, where dampness 



AT NIAGARA. 109 

and the shadows and the frightful echoes never cease to be guests. 
On another side was that great wall of water, forever de- 
scending, and forever crashing in terrific thunder, as if the very 
bag of /Eulus had tumbled over the Falls, and was here breaking, 
and all the winds that blow under the sky were escaping, raving, 
and scolding, and bellowing ! But oh, those showers of spray that 
the bright light striped with rainbows, as if the sunshine, pitying 
the seclusion and shadows of that terrible Cave of the Winds, 
had concluded to paint a veil of bewitching colors with which to 
hide the ugliness beyond. 

Spray-sprinkled and chilled, as if they had been with uncle 
Nat off in a surf-boat, trying to reach an icy, wintry shore, the 
boys crept out of the shadows and dampness up the stairway into 
the warm, cheery light. 

" Well, boys," said uncle Nat, as they returned to their hotel, 
" we have seen in the Cave of the Winds a specimen of a rock- 
change that is going on here, and let us now have a Guild 
meeting and listen to what Rob has to say about the geology of 
these Falls, or their past and future as indicated in geology." 

"All ready, sir," replied Rob, producing the desired document. 

He gave the usual oratorical " ahem," and began : 

" If we could hire a balloon and float down, or up, rather, to 
Queenston and Lewiston, following the Niagara River, and then 
look back toward the Falls, we should see, if we were up high 
enough, and had good eyesight, that the river was at the bottom 
of a deep cut. The cut goes back to the Falls. It is really a 
canon, as they say in Colorado. The river has cut this ditch, 
probably. Lyell was told by the old citizens that the Falls receded 
about a yard in a year. Professor Gunning says it is a mistake ; 
that the recedincr of the cataract the last thirtv vears has been 



no ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

inside of fifteen feet, and he puts the rate at six inches a year. 
The rock below is shale, and tlie rock on top is limestone. The 
water wears away the shale, and the lunestone too, but the shale 
crumbles first, and when its support gives way, the limestone 
conies tumbling down, tlie Niagara thus cutting its way back 
into tlie ledges at the rate of six inches a year. Then, seventy-four 
thousand years ago, the Falls were at Lewi.ston. But there are 
two places where the grinding was not so fast as the six-inch 
rate. At the Ferry Landing there is a hard limestone, and at 
the Whirlpool, is a hard sandstone, and there the Falls must have 
made exceedingly slow progress. In one place more than half 
a mile of this harder rock was before Niagara. 

" The age of the channel from Lewiston to the Horseshoe is 
two hundred thousand j-ears. But something else is thought to 
have happened. When the glacial period, as geologists call it, 
came and buried up everything, Niagara was put in a coliin also. 
The old channel was filled up, and by the wa}', there are traces 
of such a channel about two and a half miles long. Professor 
Gunning thinks it was twenty-five thousand years old, and that 
the glacial period lasted about fifty thousand years. Piling these 
figures on top of the age of the present channel — two hundred 
thousand — and we have two hundred and seventy-five thousand 
years as the estimated age of Niagara River. Professor Gunning 
calls it an approximation. Near enough, I should say. That is 
a pretty good age even for so enterprising a river as this. As to 
the future of Niagara, Lyell and Hall think the river will go on 
grinding tlie rock down, till the pride of America and Canada is 
only a lot of cascades and rapids. Professor Gunning marks out 
a certain course that the river will take, in his opinion, but the 
end will be, as l)y the above reasoning — a lot of cascades and 




TUKBL'LENT WATERS. 



AT NIAGARA. 113 

rapids. The American Fall and the Horseshoe will take different 
routes, but some day they will unite above Goat Island. 

" They will unite and move on, one Fall of immense width, 
till Navy Island cuts it in two. The greater Fall will then be 
on the American side." (Cry, " Hear, hear ! " by Rick, softly sup- 
pressed by Ralph's hand over his mouth). "These two Falls will 
keep on grinding, and finally both end in cascades and rapids. 
This issue is so far away that the summer-boarding business will 
be profitable for some time here. Professor Gunning thinks that 
Niagara may dwindle in another way. Man is now drawing off 
fifty-two thousand cubic feet of water a minute, as Ralph said in 
his essay. The professor thinks that canals will draw off the 
water from the lakes, and the cultivation of the land will affect 
the supply of water for the Falls. The professor thinks that ' man's 
hand laid on the earth in gigantic enterprise,' may compel ' the 
Falls to shrink into insignificance.' Does he mean that the current 
will dwindle actually so as to be trivial ? I can't say, but if so, then 
by and by, who can tell but — if we live long enough — we may 
all wade across Niagara River, both above and below the Falls ! " 

" Table Rock, that has given us such a splendid view of the 
Falls," said uncle Nat, " illustrates the breaking off of pieces of 
rock. At various times fragments come tumbling down. Over thirty 
years ago, a big mass was split off. It carried down with it an 
omnibus standing there, and it almost took the driver also. He 
had a warning in time to save himself. People have to be careful 
in cruising about Niagara. Once there was a tower at Niagara, 
caJled Terrapin Tower, but it has been blown up. From the 
bridge leading to the island where the tower stood, a man fell 
into the water. The strong current swept him to a rock on the 
very edge of the cataract. There he was, poor fellow, and his 



114 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES A.VD MOUNTALNS. 



feelings can be imagined — death yawning just before liini in that 
terrible gulf! However, he did not die. Ropes were thrown to 
him, and he was pulled into a much safer place. Many people 
have gone over the Falls." 

The boys watched with tireless interest the spot where the river 
dropping about fifty feet in less than a mile, rushes headlong at 
such a rate — even thirty miles in an hour — that it breaks into 
turbulent foam, as if the water had grown white with rage because 
its passage was thus forced and hurried. 

There were the wild Whirlpool Rapids, and also the Whirlpool 
itself, which is well-named, one ceaseless and wrathful ebullition of 




WHIRLPOOL. 



a terrible sweep of angry water and ghostly foam, driving on and 
on and on. The cliffs bordering tliis maelstrom are over three 
hundred feet high, and as they frown at the water, it would seem 
as if the water frowned in return, and tried to leap upon the 



AT NIAGARA. 115 

cliffs only to fall back in eddies and whirls that swept round and 
round in an insane but vain fury, raving and roaring. 

It was subsequent to tlu visit of the Guild that a sad accident 
happened here. One July afternoon, a noted English swimmer, 
Captain Webb, attempted to swim the Wliirlpool Rapids. His shoot 
of the Rapids is described as " intensely thrilling." He purposed 
to pass the Whirlpool on the Canadian side. The maelstrom, though, 
in all its fury, rushed the helpless swinmier to the American side, 
where the waves are estimated to run from thirty to forty feet 
high. When last seen, he was throwing up one arm, as if in 
dumb appeal. Then the waves closed over him. It was a daring, 
but foolish attempt that tlie swimmer made. He was brave, and 
had saved life after life. 

" You see," explained uncle Nat, " the river bends at the Whirl- 
pool, and any stream where it turns a corner is apt to bore out 
a hole in its bed. That has been done here. A vast circular basin 
has been ground out in the rock, and the water whirls round in 
it. Then I have seen the statement that the water at the Falls, 
after its plunge down to the river bed, makes an under current that 
shoots along and comes up at this point. Whether that is so, 
I can't say. But, how is it. Rick ? That commotion down there 
in the Whirlpool makes me think of a battle, and were not you 
to tell us about any battles that had happened in the neighborhood 
of Niagara ? " 

"• 1 believe I am the one, and I believe I am all ready, too. I 
have got my story with me, though it is short." 

" So much the better, and we will find a quiet, shady place, 
somewhere, and you can read it." 

In a little forest corner, the Guild listened to Rick : 

" Of course, Niagara being a point where the United States and 



ii6 ALL ABOARD J-OR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

Canada meet, in time of war between the States and England, this 
is one of the places where trouble is likely to occur. 

" In the war of 1812, the battle of Lundy's Lane was fought 
quite near the big cataract, so that it is sometimes called the 
battle of Niagara Falls. This was on the twenty-fifth of July, 
1814. It was forty minutes before sunset when the battle began. 
General Scott commanded on our side at first, the general-in-chief. 
Brown, arriving later, and taking charge. The sun went down, 
but the moon had its lantern out in the sky that night. 

'' Something funny and something spunky happened at Lundy's 
Lane. A British general, Riall, was riding along, attended by a 
number of officers. An aid of General Rial], seeing a company of 
soldiers ahead, and supposing they were British, called out — and 
I can imagine he did it pompously — 

"'Make room there, men, for General Riall!' 

" These men were Americans, and their leader, Captain Ketchum, 
said: 

" ' Ay, ay, sir.' 

" He let the aid pass ; and then as General Riall's party carelessly 
rode into the trap, Captain Ketchum told his men to surround 
them and take them prisoners ! General Riall was surprised, but 
he couldn't help himself. 

" The spunky thing was done by Colonel Miller, and it made 
him famous. The British had a battery on a hill and the Ameri- 
cans saw that it must be taken. 

" ' Colonel,' said his superior officer to Miller, ' take your regi- 
ment, storm that work, and take it.' 

" ' I'll try, sir,' said Colonel Miller, and didn't he go it ! Up 
that hill he went, and he had less than three hundred men with 
him. An old fence, along which were some bu.shes. most!)' hid 



AT NIAGARA. 117 

him. They got within about thirty feet of that battery, and 
there stood the gunners ready to fire ! But that didn't stop Miller 
only long enough to send a volley, and then he rushed on ! The 
' I'll try ' man took the guns. Congress gave Colonel Miller a 
medal, and 'I'll try' was on one side, at the bottom." 

" That is a good motto for boys, ' I'll try ! ' " said uncle Nat, 
"and for everybody, indeed. A little of Colonel Miller's 'I'll try!' 
will help one over many hard places." 

Uncle Nat's " fleet " as he sometimes called his party, a " fleet " 
that he was "convoying" from "port to port," had visited almost 
every place of interest about the Falls. They had seen and crossed 
the Suspension Bridges, had taken a " ducking " under the Horse- 
shoe Fall, had calculated how much water came over Centre Fall, 
had visited Goat Island, the Three Sisters, and almost every other 
accessible island, had been in Prospect Park, had watched the flames 
from the gas ignited at Burning Spring, had tramped on the 
battle-fields of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, and — they were all 
tired. Exception should be taken to the last statement. All were 
weary save Rob and Ralph and Rick. This portion of the Guild 
was ready to start up and visit once more with unabated ardor, 
every spot of interest. The tired portion of the Guild, though, 
had something to say. 

"Boys, we leave Niagara to-morrow. It is raining to-day, and 
it will be a good time if I do what I proposed, say something 
about suspension bridges." 

The Guild was contented to listen, and uncle Nat began: 

" What I have to say is not so much about suspension bridges, 
as the building of them ; their mode of construction. I remember 
when they built the Suspension Bridge that we crossed in the 
cars. That was built in 1852, and cost half a million. It has a 



ii8 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAA'ES AND MOUNTAINS. 

carriage-way, and then over that run the rails for the steam-cars. 
This is nortli of the Falls, and is eight hundred feet long. The 
new Suspension Bridge is nearer the Falls and cost one hundred and 
seventy-five thousand dollars. It was completed in 1869, and at 
the time, was the longest bridge of the kind in the world, being 
over twelve hundred feet long, measuring from tower to tower. 
You remember what a magnificent view we had of all the Falls, 
standing on this bridge. 

" Since that time, a greater wonder has been built than those 
here — I mean the bridge between New York and Brooklyn, cross- 
ing East River. Its central span is sixteen hundred feet long. The 
wire bridge extends still farther, and then comes a roadway across 
heavy stone masonry. The entire length of this structure is over 
a mile, and it cost about sixteen millions of dollars. At East 
River, it was a difficult task to find a foundation on which to rest 
the towers, two hundred and seventy-six and two thirds feet high, 
between which would swing the cables. 

" The proper foundation for towers designed to be such immense 
affairs, must go down to the rock of course. It was done by 
means of caissons. The caisson was really a diving-bell made of 
wood and iron, lint it had this peculiarity, a very solid top of 
wood, (Southern pine twenty-two feet thick) and on tliis were 
courses of granite that were to sustain the towers. The caisson 
sank to the river bed. In its lower part, it was operated like a 
diving-bell, the workmen removing the earth, and the caisson 
gradually sinking. On the New York side, bed-rock was struck 
seventy-eight feet below high water mark. On the Brooklyn side, 
forty-five feet and a half down, a bed of bowlders, clay and sand 
was found. Here the caisson was filled with concrete, and left in 
position — no one knows how long — to sustain its great burden 



AT NIAGARA. 119 

of solid stone, upon which have been erected those lofty towers. 

" At last, by the summer of 187G, two noble towers fully com- 
pleted, looked at one another across the river ; but what a gap 
there was between them ! Now comes the swinging of the first 
link between the towers. It was easier at East River of course, 
than here. At Niagara, the first connection made was by means 
of a string that a kite floated over. To the sti'ing was attached 
a wire, and then this was drawn over. At the New York and 
Brooklyn bridge, a three-quarter-incli wire rope was carried across 
the river in a scow. This rope went over in two .spans, and two 
trips were made, after which the spans were joined in an endless 
rope, and along this a man seated in a ' boatswain's chair ' could 
be whirled from tower to tower, steam-power keeping this endless 
rope travelling, and the man with it. 

" If you look at the suspension bridge first built here, you will 
see that it is suspended from four cables, each about ten inches 
thick. At East River, there are four cables also. Each contains 
between five and six thousand steel wires. These wires are about 
the size of a lead pencil, and if they were attached to one another 
lengthwise, it has been thought that there would be a total length 
of wire almost enough to reach half-way round the world. You 
will wonder how they got in position such big, heavy cables. 
After stretching the endless wire at the start, they could carry 
across other necessary and preliminary ropes ; but those • great 
cables were constructed wire by wire. High up in the air, one 
at a time, the wires were placed in position, and then they were 
woven, as somebody said, into those great cables. That work used 
up a year and a half. From these cables were suspended wires 
or rods that sustained the floor-beams. On these, beams of steel, 
timber, and other material were laid for the floor or roadway. 



I20 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

There are five compartments in the latter. The middle is for foot 
travellers, and is twelve feet above all the other divisions. That 
gives them a good view as they walk along. On either side of 
this central promenade is a section for cars. These in turn are 
bordered by divisions for vehicles. A magnificent affair," declared 
uncle Nat emphatically. 

'• I have seen a statement somewhere, that in constructing the 
cables, tlie workmen were obliged to look out for the wind and 
also the action of the sun. Now take a furious wind, and I should 
think it would make the bridge pull on those towers, and then 
when the bridge is heavily loaded, that must strain on the towers," 
said Rob Merry. 

" As I understand it, Rob, the cables pass over the towers, and 
are ' anchored,' as they say, beyond them. They are fastened in 
immense piles of stone on the land, about ninety feet above high 
water mark, called ' anchorages.' The great towers hold up the 
cables, but the strain will come on those anchorages." 

" But, uncle Nat, can ships go under the bridge ? " 

" As a rule. The floor of the bridge is one hundred and thirty- 
five feet above the water — high water, I take it. At low water 
a vessel could have about one hundred and forty feet. Very few 
vessels are so aspiring that they go any higher, and if they do, 
they must just humble their pride, and lower the top-gallant mast." 

" Do we leave the Falls to-morrow ? " asked Rick. 

" Yes ; I suppose so." 

" We shall leave enough company behind us, so that the place 
won't be lonely," observed Ralph. 

" These pleasure-resorts are rather solitary when summer visitor.*; 
have gone," replied uncle Nat. " Some of them, in the woods, are 
lonely spots indeed." 



CHAPTER VII. 



ALONG THE GREAT LAKES. 




I 



SUPPOSE we ought 
to have a few curiosi- 
ties, boys," declared uncle 
Nat, and Rick with ears 
fully open, heard his dec- 
laration. He also heard 
uncle Nat add, " But I 
don't know as I have 
time to get any knick- 
nacks." 

It was Rick who felt 
that he was just the boy 
to get various Niagara 
mementoes for that be- 
loved uncle Nat. He started off on a relic-buying tour. In the 
shops at the village, he bought a basket and various photographs. 
He spied an Indian squaw at the corner of a street, loaded down 
with various gaudily painted trinkets so that she looked like a 
poppy-bed in full bloom. Ptick bought of her some bead-work and 
paid her liberally — a fact that set her to jabbering his praise 
enthusiastically. 

'"Oh!" thought Ptick, "I don't believe uncle Nat has any spec- 



124 ^I-L ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

iiiiens of the rocks uiider the Falls. I could just get a guide, 
slip down there, and break off a few pieces with a hammer." 

Looking like a young Neptune, wrapped in an oil-cloth suit, and 
preceded by a guide, Kick started for the Cave of the Winds. 
Under the huge, thundering, deafening mass of plunging water, 
the two remained long enough to secure the desired rocky treasure, 
and then emerged from the spray, looking as if wet by a stiff North 
Atlantic gale. 

Rick was absent some time from his companions, and uncle 
Nat began to be uneasy. The latter took his hat, and went to 
inquire al)out Rick in the streets of the village. The dusky vender 
of Indian trinkets told uncle Nat enough to make him at ease 
with regard to the object of Rick's wanderings, till he happened 
to meet an hotel acquaintance, who said one of his boys was 
down at the Cave of the Winds. Hurrying there, in his alarm, 
he met Rick's late guide, who told uncle Nat that Rick had 
gone back to the hotel. Uncle Nat by this time began to feel 
that a game of battledoor and shuttlecock was going on, and he 
was the shuttlecock shnt from point to point. Rick in the mean- 
while was growing thirsty after his rambles, and on his way to 
the hotel, spied ahead a trader in lemonade. It was a colored 
boy. He had a pitcher in one hand, and two glasses in the 
other. His arms as well as hands were in service, one carrying 
an old linen duster, and the other bearing np a basket of apples. 

"See here!" said Rick hurriedly, "just pour me a glass of 
lemonade, and quick, please." 

It was a stout colored boy, perhaps sixteen, but he was short 
for his years. He did not pour, but looked steadily at Rick. 
" Pour, please ! " said Rick. 

A light broke over the sable face of the ' drink pedler. It 
was like a very bright moon coming out of a cloud. 



ALOXG THE GREAT LAKES. 125 

"Don' yer know j'er ole frien'?" he said. 

Rick looked at liini and then looked again. 

" Si-ah ! " he screamed ; and in his eagerness to shake Siah's 
hand, he took hold of tlie pitcher and began to shake tliat. As 
Siah could do no better just then, he moved the pitcher up and 
down like a pump handle. 

" It's Siah wlio sailed in dat Ant'lope,'' said the apple and lem- 
onade merchant. 

" Come this way, come this way ! " exclaimed Rick, still cling- 
ing to the pitcher. " Uncle Nat's in the hotel, my brother Ralph, 
and cousin Rob Merry." 

" Cap'n Stevens and yer brudder Ralph ! Mus' see dem ef I 
don' sell anuder moufful ob lem'nade." 

Siah was soon surrounded by the Antelope Guild in the parlor, 
and heartily greeted. 

" Whar's de cap'n?" he asked. 

" There he comes toward the hotel now ! " exclaimed Rob, 
detecting the captain, who, like a bumblebee aiming at home, was 
making the shortest, straightest passage to the hotel possible. 

" Uncle Nat has been worried about you, Rick. Where have 
you been?" inquired Ralph. 

" Only after curiosities for him. He wanted some, and didn't I 
bring one?" he asked, laughing, and pointing at Siah, who 
grinned in response. 

" Now, Siah, get into a corner quick, and let us cover you up," 
said Ralph, to whom an idea had suddenly come. 

"What for?" inquired the astonished Siah. 

" Don't say anything. I want to surprise uncle Nat. Quick ! " 

Siah was now stationed in the corner. 

"What — what can we cover him up with?" inquired Ralph. 

" Here's mj' coat for one thing," said Rob. 



126 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKEH AND MOUNTAINS. 

"And mine," said Ralph. 

"And mine," said Riclt, tendering his jaclvet. 

Siah, who thonglit he wonld ''die a-lattin'," was speedily 
changed into a closely -draped oljjecl in tlie corner. When inicle 
Nat came into the room, he saw three giggling youths in their 
shirt-sleeves, and a palpitating mass of clothes in the corner. 

" What is going on here ? " burst out uncle Nat. " And Rick, 
where have you been ? I have been a good deal worried about 
you. You ought not to go ott" so." 

" Excuse me, uncle Nat, if I worried you. I wanted to get for 
you some of those curiosities you spoke about. I suppose I ought 
not to have gone off without telling you. Sorry to worry you." 

Rick was advancing with various mementoes toward the panting 
Captain, whose face suggested a red-hot furnace about to receive 
and devour sundry offerings now tendered to it. 

" And see here, sir," said Ralph, " Rick has a veiled statue for 
you." 

"A what?" asked uncle Nat. 

Ralph advanced toward the corner, lifted the veil, and there, 
assuming for a moment a look of solemn dignity, was the 
pitcher, and basket-loaded Siah. 

"A — who — what curiosity is this ? " asked the surprised uncle 
Nat. 

"Don't you recollect Siah, uncle, on board the Antelope?" 
inquired Rick. 

The Guild was roaring. 

" Oh, there ! Where's my memory ? " exclaimed uncle Nat, who 
prided himself in one point of resemblance to Julius Ca3sar, that 
he knew the names of those who served under him. He now 
gave the humble lemonade merchant a welcome, and when the boys 



ALONG THE GREAT LAKES. 



127 



had left the room for a minute, he made a proposition to Siah 
that turned his face into a succession of grins. 

"At Bos's'n, you say, 
Cap'n?" 

"Yes, Boston." 

"All right." 

The boys, especially 
Ralph and Rick, were 
sorry to say farewell to 
this second '' pas' mem- 
ber " of the Guild, but 
uncle Nat said something 
about " Boston " to Siah 
that left him shouting with 
a grin, " Good-by ! " and 
that left the boys won- 
dering what uncle Nat 
could be Cleaning. 

" Oh ! you may be sure 
he is planning something 
about Boston," suggested 
Rob. 

" He always is planning 
for folks," said Ralph. 

" That's so," from Rick. 

The day the Guild left 
Niagara, uncle Nat made 
this statement: 

" We are going toward Colorado as fast as 
fortably and profitably. There are several places I want to touch 




THE UNVEILED STATUE. 



we can go com- 



128 ALL ABOARD FUK THE LAKES AM> AJOLMAJN^. 

at between here and Chicago. I am gohig down to Erie, and I 
want to touch at Detroit. My idea is to see something of 
the Great Lalves, us we call them. It is always pleasant to see 
lake scenery in daylight or moonlight, but my special plan is to 
get some idea of these Great. Lakes that have been so identified 
with our past history, and that are so intimately connected with 
the 'future prosperity of our counnerce. As a Guild, we will hunt 
up facts on these topics which we will divide among ourselves as 
follows : Rob may take anything about Lake Erie in the war of 
1812; Ralph may tell about La Salle, the voyage in the West; 
Rick may take De Soto, another discoverer, and I will tell what 
I can about the physical and commercial features of the Great 
Lakes." 

When the boys and their guide arrived at Erie, in Pennsylvania, 
they found a bustling lake city there. The waters came rolling in 
through Presque Isle Bay from Lake Erie, dashing against the 
docks, and looking "quite sealike," Ralph said. A fresh, lively 
wind was blowing, that rolled the vapors of the sky into threatening 
clouds, and sent the vessels with swollen sails dashing across the 
foam-tufted waters. Uncle Nat rubbed his hands at sight of the 
rolling waves and the swollen sails. 

" Wish I had my Aiitelojye here," he said to himself. " As I 
haven't the Antelope, but the Antelope Guild, I will do the next 
thing, and we will have a paper read." 

Rob was not ready with his essay, and uncle Nat took his 
place. 

" I am to take various physical and commercial features of the 
Lakes, and we will begin where we are," said uncle Nat. "No, 
we will begin where we are not — at Lake Ontario — and begin with 
the beginning. That is the smallest of the Lakes, one hundred 




MOONLIGHT 0?< TUE IiAKE. 



ALONG THE GREAT LAKES. 



131 



and eighty miles long, and fifty-five broad, and yet it has a depth 
of five hundred feet, and contains six thousand three hundred 
square miles. Then take this Lake, Erie. It is two liundred and 
forty miles long, and sixty broad, and has a surface of nine thousand, 
six hundred square miles. It is the shallowest of the Lakes, and 
yet it is over eighty feet deep on the average. Lake Huron comes 




THE WATERS CAME KllLUNO IN FROM Tllf: LAKE. 

next, only a little longer, but one hundred and sixty miles wide, 
and it has twenty thousand, four hundred square miles of surface. 
The waters are said to be as deep as Lake Superior's, and those 
are nine hundred feet, which is deep enough. Georgian Bay, the 
northeast portion of Huron, is smaller, and inside of Canada. 



13a 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



Lake Michigan has twenty-two thousand square miles of area, 
being one hundred miles broad, and three hundred and twenty 
long, and where it is deepest, has a depth of nine hundred feet. 
Lake Superior has thirty-two thousand miles of square surface. 
This is the King Lake — three hundred and fifty-five miles long, and 




THUNDEB CAPE, LAKE 8UPEBI0R. 



one hundred and sixty wide. Its shores are rough and rocky. 
Thunder Cape, with its cliffs, shows one what rocks Lake 
Superior can pile up when it sets out. We have in the Lakes as 
a whole, such an immense surface of water, measuring over 
ninety thousand miles, it must have a great influence on nature 
and man. I know I have piled up a good many figures, but I 
want them to make an impression on you, that you may under- 
stand what a big thing it is that goes over Niagara. And yet 



ALONG THE GREAT LAKES. 133 

all the water does not go over Niagara, as we were told a little 
while ago. How much water must be evaporated ! Take the 
amount of water evaporated by these Lakes, estimated at eleven 
trillion, eight hundred billion cubic feet per year," (uncle Nat 
almost ran aground trying to give those figures), " and it explains 
the difference in the volume of water going over Niagara and that 
entering the Lakes. All this nuist affect our climate, and it cer- 
tainly has a great deal to do with our commerce. There is an 
immense trade by way of these Lakes. The amount of navigation 
is amazing. Lumber, coal, grain, fish — but there, I can't begin 
to give a fair idea of the quantity of goods shipped by the 
Lakes. Every year it is increasing. Rob is going to tell us 
about the battle of Lake Erie, and I want you to know the 
history of your country, that you may imderstand its mistakes and 
right movements in the past, and its perils and hopes in the 
future. The wars, though, I want you to be most interested in, are 
those fought in nature, where we war with water, or rock, or 
winds, and, beat them, and make them serve us. The sooner that 
other wars come to an end, the better." 

Rob's paper on the battle of Lake Erie was as follows : 
"In 1812, war broke out between the United States and Great 
Britain, on account of injuries to our commerce growing out 
of war with the French nation, and because English war ships 
impressed American seamen. It was a war to which there was 
bitter opposition among the States. In New England there was 
intense feeling against the war, and the opposition had a famous 
convention at Hartford, Conn. There were those who threat- 
ened to drop out of the Union if the war was not dropped. 
However, in the course of the trouble, our Canadian frontier was 
of course very much exposed. Rick has told us about the trouble 



134 ALL ABOARD J- OR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

near Niagara. To this place, Erie, came young Oliver Perry, of 
Rhode Island, to take command of a fleet for service on Lake 
Erie. The name of Presque Isle was then given to a mean little 
village here, and on one side was a lake that could not have been 
very extensively navigated, and on the other a country thinly 
peopled, if not an empty wilderness. Perry at last prepared a little 
fleet for service, but what could he do without men ? Perry said 
of the enemy's vessels on the lake, ' I long to be at him ; ' but his 
force of men was too scanty to be hopeful. Perry at last resolved 
to go as he was, having only about three hundred men and 
officers that were effective. With these he was trying to man two 
twenty-gun brigs and eight smaller vessels. The saucy little fleet 
sailed out of harbor, and glad enough was Perry eventually to 
receive a reinforcement of about a liundred men with which to 
prepare for the British. The day of battle came in September. 
Perry's signal for action was to be the hoisting of a blue flag that 
bore as motto the last words of a dying naval hero of America, 
' Don't give up the ship.' The morning of the tenth of September, 
1813, Perry brought out the battle flag before his officers and crew, 
the enemy being in sight. *My brave lads!' he said, 'this flag con- 
tains the last words of Captain Lawrence. Shall I hoist it ? ' 
' Ay, ay, sir ! ' was the response, and amid cheers up went the 
flag to the main royal masthead of the flag ship, the Lawrence. 
The enemy had six vessels, and Perry had nine in his fleet, but 
a smaller nunil)er of guns, and one ves.sel was not in action. The 
men aboard these fleets were about equal in number, but about a 
quarter of Perry's men were sick. One-fourth of his force, let it 
be remembered, was colored. Give them praise ! Perry did one 
specially daring thing. It was necessary that he should go from 
one vessel to another, and this he did. standing erect in a boat, 




Olf THETR WAY TO A COAL-VTCTN. 



ALONG THE GREAT LAKES. 137 

his pennant and banner half-folded about him. The enemy sent 
a shower of balls that way, antl the oars were splintered, but not 
the leader. Perry captured the entire British fleet. He sent 
off a despatch to General Harrison, telling of the victory. This 
he wrote in pencil on the back of an old letter, using his navy cap 
as a writing desk. The first part has been popular for quotation : 

We have met the enemy, and they are ours : two ships, two brigs, one 
schooner, and one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem, 

O. II. Perry. 

Perry was about twenty-eight when he put that feather in his cap." 
"I have heard one beautiful fact about Perry," added uncle 
Nat ; " that after the battle, he remarked to a friend the first thing 
on returning to the ship he had left in the fight, ' the prayers of 
my wife have prevailed in saving me.' " 

As the cars took away from Erie the enterprising Guild that 
had visited it, uncle Nat said : " Of course you know, boys, that 
we are in a great coal State. We are interested in the Appalachian 
mountain system. There is the Appalachian coal field, covering 
about sixty 'thousand square miles, including parts of Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Virginia, going into Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, and 
Alabama also. We have a big coal field covering another sixty 
thousand miles, that stretches into Illinois, Missouri, and other 
States in that neighborhood. 1 know of farms in Iowa that are 
valuable for the crops above, and the coal below. It is the soft 
coal they dig there. It is an interesting process to my mind how 
forests wither, leaves and branches fall, and some day they will 
turn up again as coal." 

" Yes," said Rob, looking out of the v^indow and chancing to 
see a leaf whirling down from a tree, " there is something on its 
way to a coal vein." 



CHAPTER VIII. 



EARLY DATS. 




W" 



EARLY DAYS. 



'HEN they reached Detroit, un- 
cle Nat said to tlie boys : 
" We are going to stop here a 
day, and some time wliile in tlie 
city, we will hear about La Salle, 
if the secretary is ready." 
Ralph said he was ready. 
" It is not only well to know 
about the people here now, but those 
who first came here. A place I 
love to visit, and that ought to be dear to every New Englander 
especially, is old Burial Hill, at Plymouth, Mass. You look away off 
upon the sea from that hill, and then as 3'ou turn and look at the 
stones, you look far back into the past history of this country. Set- 
tled by the Pilgrims in 1620, Plymouth abounds in interesting associ- 
ations. Go into Pilgrim Hall and you will see relics telling of those 
days, the sword of Standish, the Pilgrim captain, among them. 
From the East we will turn West, and track an early visitor here, 
especially as his boat moved over the waters of one of these great 
lakes we are interested in." 
Ralph began : 
" Robert Cavelier de la Salle was a Frenchman, born at Rouen, 



EARL Y DA YS. 



139 



France, in November, 1643. He came to this country when he 
was about twenty-four years old, his only companions being 'poverty 
and a boundless spirit of enterprise.' Bancroft says : ' After various 
experiences, he obtained from France the grant of Fort Frontenac, 
provided he maintained the fortress.' This is now Kingston, on Lake 
Ontario, at its outlet. La Salle greatly prospered there in the 
wilderness, but when stories reached him of wonderful discoveries 
farther west, he was ambitious to go there and secure what advan- 




BURIAL niLL, PLYMOUTH, MASS. 

tages he could for France. It was La Salle who first launched a 
wooden vessel on the upper Niagara River. Of course, there had 
been . many bark ones. Li this vessel, of sixty tons, named the 
Griffin, he crossed Lake Erie and came into this river off Detroit. 



140 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 





KETTLE, SWORD AND FISH IN PILGRIM HALL. 



When we looked at it to-day, I imagined how the Griffin may 
have appeared sailing along in the style of those days, passing 
through Detroit River, through Lake St. Clair, which La Salle named, 

finally crossing Lake Huron. The 
Griffin was sent home with a 
cargo of furs, but La Salle and hia 
companions, in hark canoes, pushed 
to the head of Lake Michigan. 
It must have been very differ- 
ent then from now. Only for- 
saken waters, then, save where 
some Indian paddled his canoe 
of birch bark across the glassy 
waters, and only Indian wigwams 
on any shore ! La Salle made 
his headquarters at the mouth of the St. Joseph's River, but he 
did not stay there. He eventually explored south of his fort and 
began to build a fort on the Illinois River. He had a very rough 
time. The Griffin, he had reason to believe, was wrecked. His 
men were discouraged. There La Salle was, fifteen hundred miles 
from the nearest French settlement, shut up among savages. He 
gave his fort a touching name, Fort Crevecceur, which means Fort 
Heart-sore, or Heart-break. La Salle and three men set out for 
Fort Frontenac, to walk all that rough, weary way, their only food 
what powder and shot might bring them. 

" La Salle secured help and returned to build a vessel, in which 
he embarked on the Mississippi in 1682. It was he that near 
the Gulf of Mexico claimed the country for France, calling it Loui»- 
iana. What proud dreams for the glory of France, La Salle must 
have cherished, especially when he went to Paris, and there in his 



EARL Y DA YS. 



141 



native land gathered a colony for far-off Louisiana ! One disaster 
after another befell this band. They did not find the Mississippi, 
but went to the Bay of Matagorda beyond. A storeship was wrecked. 
La Salle hunted for the Mississippi, but could not find it. His 
hopes for the colony were not realized. A little bark they had, 
was wrecked. He determined to go on foot to Canada, if possible, 
and there get help, and set off with sixteen men, tramping in shoes 
made of green buffalo hides. They pushed north, starting in Jan- 
Tury, 1687. In March, two of La Salle's men murdered a third; 




LA SALLE 8 CANOES ON LAKE MICUIOAN. 



with whom they had a quarrel, and when La Salle went out to 
search for the missing man, and chanced to meet his murderers, 
one of these shot La Salle as he waited to get an answer to his 
inquiries about the missing man. La Salle fell dead. 

" Had he lived, his great will and his ability to plan and 
execute, might have made a French colony a success. It is said 
that his manner aroused enmity among his followers in the South, 
and this may have been true; but I should say it turned out that 
in some there was a good deal that was bad to be aroused." 

The boys were deeply interested in the early history of Detroit. 



142 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



Uncle Nat found fur them an account of the siege of the place 
by that famous Indian chief, Pontiac. 

" It is Indian, Indian, Indian," said Ralph. 
" I almost feel as if I were one, living in a 
wigwam, starting a fire in the Indian fash- 
ion, living on game shot by an Indian bow 
and arrows." 

"And I feel," said Rick, "as if I had 
gone into deerskin breeches and might take 
my gun or bow, any time, for a hunt." 

But Rob asserted that his thoughts were 
on another subject. 

" I am thinking of those who were inhab- 
itants here before the Indians. They are the 
four-legged people, and not the two, and go in 
thick skins, but they are skins of their own. 
If I had a gun, and could have a crack at some of those abo- 
rigines ! " 




RICK IN IlEER SKIN 
BKEECHE8. 




rob's aborigines. 



CHAPTER IX. 



BIG CITY AND BIG LAKE. 



A T Chicago, uncle Nat made a three days' .stop, and these 

^ were packed days. The quick movement of the city's life 
seemed to be comnmnicated to the Guild, and their sight-seeing 
was a constant " drive, drive." 

" There, boys," said uncle Nat, the evening of the third day, 
" it is time that we pulled up and rested. We will have a quiet 
time this evening, and if Rick has possibly had time to tell us 
about Chicago, we will hear the paper that he was to give us." 

Rick's eyes snapped. He said he " felt full of steam," and he 
would like to read what he had been writing down when he had 
had a chance the past few days : 

"Chicago is a big city. That is my honest opinion. Just think 
of this place! A Fort Dearborn was built here in 1804. The 



H^ 



144 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



Indians killed its soldiers at one time. Chicago was really settled 
in 1831. In 1833, August, it had tvventj-eight voters. Now it 
has over half a million people. Everything is on a big scale. 
One thing is the way it gets its water. There are two tunnels, 
one l)eing five feet in diameter and the other ten. and these run 




A LAKE IN PICNIC WEATUKK. 



out into the lake, where, two miles out, a " crib " was built of 
iron and wood, and in the centre is an iron cylinder that was 
sunk sixty-four feet. There are engines for pumping, and the water 
can be pumped to the tune of eighty million gallons in a day. 
Chicago has a big grain trade. There are grain elevators, and 
these are big buildings where the grain can be lifted out of ves- 
sels and cars, stored according to grades, then poured out again 
into other vessels and cars. They sell a good deal of hmiber, and 
they pack a good many hogs here ; a lot of beef too. A man 
told me he knew over two million of hogs were packed one year, 
and T don't dare say how many will go off this year. Chicago 
has stock-yards, and the Guild had the pleasure of seeing a big 



BIG CITY AND BIG LAKE. 



MS 



train of cattle that arrived in cars and were then marched into 
pens ( the cattle also had the honor of seeing the Guild ). 
Chicago has artesian wells. We found an artesian well about seven 
hundred feet deep. Good water we saw on its way to the thirsty 
cattle. It had not travelled as far as the cattle, but had come 
quite a distance. Chicago has very handsome business quarters, 
nice churches and parks. They say you can go from park to 
park in one long drive over the avenues that connect them, and 
ride thirty-five miles in this way. Uncle Nat, I know, wants me 
to say something about the shijiping, for Chicago is on Lake 
Michigan. It is oftentimes hard to get a good harbor at the 
mouths of the lake-rivers, because the sand piles up there. Arti- 
ficial harbors have been made in many places, piers being run out 
into the lake from the mouth of a river. At Chicago, long piers 
were built. They say the sand does not gather in such quantities 
where the piers have been built. The shipping of Chicago is 
immense, and Chicago River is a great help to it by its docks 
and ships. The river is connected with the Illinois and Michigan 
canal that runs into the Illinois River and that flows into the 
Mississippi. Everything is very big in Chicago, even its great fire 
in 1871, that burned out of doors about a hundred thousand people 
and burned up two hundred million dollars' worth of property. 
One must almost fear to hear a fire alarm here, lest it turn out 
the biggest thing of the kind yet in all America." 

Uncle Nat said, " I want you to try to realize, boys, what a 
great headquarters for navigation Chicago has already become. I 
was here in 1875, and that year ten thousand four hundred and 
eighty-eight vessels arrived, and ten thousand six hundred and 
seven vessels cleared. The shipping of tlie city will increase 
rapidly. Think what a vast country the Lakes lead to, and this 



146 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



lake, Michigan, and the others also, will be bordered with a vast 
poiJulation. Look out then for a multitude of steam and sailing 
vessels ! The importance of lake navigation is proved by the United 
States Life Saving Service. The last report I saw, was for 1881 
That gave one hundred and forty-nine stations on the Atlantic and 
Pacific coasts, and on the Lakes thirty-four. Lake Michigan alone had 




A LAKE IN STOKMY WEATHER. 



sixteen stations. This shows how much shipping there is to meet 
the rough weather on the Lakes." 

Uncle Nat might have added that of two hundred and fifty 
disasters reported by the Service, ninety-four were on tlie Lakes. 
Becau.'?e a lake is not an ocean, it need not be supposed that its 



BIG CITY AND BIG LAKE. 147 

waves are ripples and its storms only puffs of wind Lake-gales 
are sometimes terrible battles of gust and billow. In winter, if 
we take Lake Michigan, we find that its great depth forbids 
extensive freezing, but the ice gathers in large quantities in the 
shoal water along the shore, and the wind forces it into the 
mouths of the rivers. It is a kind of cramming not at all agree- 
able to mariners who are driven oa these cold, rugged masses. 
How hard it may be also for the brave crew at a Life Saving 
Station, we will show by this disaster on Lake Huron : 

The twentieth of November, 1880, across Thunder Bay, in the 
State of Michigan, a terrible gale was blowing as the dark came 
on. The mercury stood only ten degrees above zero. The ice was 
piled up in hard, cruel banks, seven to ten feet high, while the 
loose, soft ice reached out from the shore ten to fifty rods. The 
beach in the neighborhood of a station is traversed by a man 
called the patrol. He goes to the limits of his beat, and there 
meets the patrolman from the next station, if there be one, and 
the two exchange " patrol checks." The latter " bear the several 
crew numbers and station designations of the respective patrolmen," 
and are interchanged by them, " thus furnishing to the keeper of 
each station a record of the patrol meetings." The patrolman has 
a red Coston signal which he fires, shonld he notice any intimation 
of a vessel in distress, and he then warns the crew at the station. 

That night of the twentieth of November, at ten o'clock, the 
crew of the Life Saving Station, No. Six, on Thunder Bay Island, 
Tenth District, heard in their cots a shrill whistle of distress, 
routing them at once, and at the same time the patrolman rushed 
into the station, crying that a tug was ashore about fifty yards 
away. Every station has its life-saving apparatus, a boat among 
them, but it was impossible to launch the life-boat over the rough 



148 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

accuiiiiilations of ice on Thunder Bay Island. Keeper Persons had 
a skiff, though, half a mile away, and this was pulled over the 
ice and driftwood, launched, and the tug was reached. What a 
sight it was, the Aituee, of Alpena, Michigan ! The water dashing 
against and across it had quickly congealed, casing it with ice. 
The pilot house was so ice-covered that it was necessary to hew 
a way into this glistening, arctic prison, and extricate the captain. 
He had been patiently sitting in this cold, terrible dungeon, and 
was almost frozen to death. He was rescued, taken ashore, and made 
comfortable, and the tug was finally anchored off the station. 
About four in the morning, a new chapter of disasters began. 
How the wind blew ! as if it were the shout of ten thousand 
demons. And the cold, how stinging and pitiless it was ! The 
tug, to escape a crash on ' that icy shore, was steaming off, when 
tlie captain found that the rudder had been torn away. As day- 
light whitened the sky and revealed the wild, wrathful surface of 
tlie lake, the angry swoop of its billows, the ice walls along the 
shore, there was the tug drifting helplessly away out into a sea 
of death. On board were the captain, engineer, and a surfman 
from the station, who had gone to the tug with them. How the 
life savers fought to reach the tug ! And hark ! The tug whistle 
is screaming for help. And look ! The imprisoned men are making 
piteous signals for aid. It is now a desperate battle that is 
waged with ice and flood, wood and surf, by the station men, and 
at last the boat reaches the tug, and the men are rescued. In 
the breakers, a vicious wave crashes against the boat, it is capsized 
in about four feet of water, and as it is whirled over, it shuts 
down like a death cap on the captain of the tug. and two of the 
station men. It is a horrilile incarceration in that freezing, whirling 
surf. Two of the brave surfmen seize and right the frantic boat 




I.AUNCIIINQ A BOAT. 



BIG CITY AND BIG LAKE. 151 

that knocks one of them over in return, and somehow, pushing, 
lifting, dragging one another, they scale the horrid ice-banks. One 
of the surfmen from the station was so long exposed and so 
battered in the breakers, that in his weak, frozen condition, he 
would have been drowned had it not been for timely help. With 
clothes stiff and icy, so that the men looked like big, walking 
icicles, they reached the station, glad to get into warm, dry clothes, 
and glad also to get something warni into them. Such is some- 
times the terrible winter exposure of our hardy mariners and their 
brave saviors on the Lakes. One case has been reported of a 
disaster in connection with an early morning rescue on Lake Huron. 
A boat was upset. It came ashore with a single survivor, the 
keeper of the life-saving station. The six men in the boat's crew were 
buoyed up by their life belts, but they were chilled to death by 
the arctic water. What a spectacle, those six drifting corpses ! 
Sometimes the boat cannot be used iu rescuing the crew of a 
wrecked vessel. They must then be reached, if readied at all, in 
some other way. To the wreck, there goes whizzing a shot carry- 
ing a line not heavy, but strong. By means of this, the cast- 
aways haul on board a larger line " doubled through a single pulley 
block," and the line is attached to the wreck. This gives an end- 
less line going through the block on the wreck, and another on 
shore, and by this, the sailors pull out a stouter and yet single 
line to be made fast above the other. Along the single line, by 
means of the endless line labeled "a whip," a life-car may be 
run to the wreck. A breeches-buoy may be used instead, and the 
rescued get into it, one by one. as into a pair of breeches, and are 
carried ashore. The life-car holds several persons at a time — three 
or four — who enter it by a small man-hole; are shut in, and so 
go ashore in safety, even if the surf may try to spill them out. 



152 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

For rescuing the young, the old, and the weak, it is very help- 
ful. 

October 16, 1880, the schooner J. H. Hartzell was wrecked about 
a mile from the harbor of Frankfort, Lake Michigan. The wind 
and sea were furious, the weather having suddenly changed, and the 
vessel waiting only for dayliglit to slip into harbor, and antici- 
pating no trouble, was caught in the jaws of a tempest that 
developed a violence in an hour sufficient to send her on to a 
sandy bar. The captain slipped her anchors after she had struck, 
and she turned about, or as seamen would say, *' swung around, 
bow to tlie shore." She was in an awful, driving, raging, mad 
whirl of waters. The breakers thundering upon her, began — true 
to their name — to break into and destroy her. She commenced 
to founder, and the crew went for refuge up into the rigging. 
Some one on shore chanced to pierce the veil of slanting, driving 
rain with which the storm was tiying to hide that angry, destroying 
sea and the victims of its wrath. The alarm was given in the 
village of South Frankfort. People began to gather. A fire was 
built. Against the light ground of a bluff fronting the sea, pieces 
of driftwood were laid, and in big, black characters, these words 
were framed, — 

LIFE BOAT COMING! 

Signals from the wreck showed that this ingenious message had 
been read and welcomed. Ten miles away was a life-saving station, 
and Keeper Matthews was notified as soon as possible. He ordered 
out the mortar cart. A horse was attached, and away went the 
cart, containing a Lyle gun, breeches-buoy, hawser, hauling lines, 
and other beach apparatus. It was a long, tiresome journey through 
the woods, up steep sand hills, amid a wild storm that seemed 



BIG CITY AND BIG LAKE. 



IS3 



more like a hurricane. Help appearing on the way to the shore, 
a team went back to the station for the life-car, and the mortar 
cart was forced aliead through tlie forest, where willing hands hewed 
down the trees in the way, and reached the top of a bluff almost 
three hundred feet above the sea. What a scene it was that the 




band of rescuers looked upon — the turmoil of the autumn storm, 
the sea broken everywhere into frothing mouths, and that wreck 
in the midst of the maelstrom! What must have been the feelings 
of those on the shattered, ti'embling, groaning, half-submerged vessel ? 
A few feet above the water, in the lower rigging, was the cap- 
tain, to whom snow and rain had given a chilling wintry coat. 
Forty feet higher up, in the cross-trees, were the forms of six 
seamen, crouchins; there before the storm howling so violently that 



154 '-iLL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

one could speak to his neighbor only by shouting through a trum- 
pet formed uitli the hands and held up to that neighbor's ear. 
With her head on the knees of a sailor who shielded her face 
from the storm, her lower limbs hanging through the opening in 
the deck of the cross-trees and wrapped in a fold of canvas 
cut by a seaman out of the gaff-topsail above, lay a woman, 
the cook, sick, chilled, benumbed, at first delirious and then insen- 
sible. She was dying. What a position, up in those cross-trees, 
the mast swaying with the swaying wreck, and threatening to 
plunge down into that foaming gulf, yawning every second to 
receive its coveted prey ! Keeper Matthews saw two hundred and 
fifty feet down the sandy bluff, a shelf ten or twelve feet wide. 
He determined to lower the cart there, and after almost incredible 
efforts by the station crew, and the people helping them, the pur- 
pose was successful. There on the bruad, sandy shelf, the surf 
roaring and shattering into foam below, gathered the rescuers of 
the poor souls in the rigging of the wreck. The gun was aimed 
and fired, the shot carrying a line to the captain, but it could 
not be successfully handled. The second shot carried a line directly 
across the fore-rigging, where the men in the cross-trees seized it. 
The wind above, the sea below, the storm everywhere, interposed 
obstacles that the work of three hotu's alone could offset, and then 
the breeches-buoy was run out to the wreck. A man was seen 
to get into the Inioy, and was hauled ashore after a difficult pas- 
sage of seventeen minutes. It was the first mate who came, with 
eyes staring and with stiffened jaws. " Save the others," was his 
first appeal when revived. The life-car was substituted for the 
buoy, and this went to the wreck. Two men were lowered from 
the cross-trees by ropes ai'ound their bodies, and went into the 
car. A third man was lowered in that way, who fastened the 



BIG CITY AND BIG LAKE. 155 

door, and then up to the cross-trees his companions pulled him. 
The car reached the shore, and the men within were released. 
But where was the woman ? The car again went to the wreck 
slowly overcoming the opposing obstacles. Wind and rain, snow 
and hail, now and then swept over the wild waters. It was now 
afternoon, the day wasting away. The second mate and captain 
next entered the life-car and were drawn ashore. But where was 
the woman ? Why was not that chilled, silent sufferer sent where 
medicines, fire and clothing would bring some measure of comfort 
if they could not renew life's lease ? The crowd on the shore 
was indignant. The car again started on its journey amid a fast 
deepening twilight. At the stroke of the first breaker, the car was 
upset, but it moved on to the wreck. The gloom of the ?.utumn 
night was thickening around the mast-head, and the keeper's 
glasses could only make out dim, misty objects shifting their 
places ; and were they sailoi's about to lower that poor, imperiled 
woman ? A long time for preparation was allowed the sailors, 
and when the keeper gave the signal to haul, the car was 
shrouded in the night. The line of brave helpers on the shore 
pulled vigorously on the rope, and through the shadows the life- 
car moved rapidly. It struck the beach and the surf rushed, and 
eddied, and frothed about it as if reluctant to yield the prize 
snatched from the sea. 

" Now, boys," shouted the keeper, " jump down and roll that 
car over and get that woman out as soon as you can." 

The car was quickly dragged out of the surf, righted, and the 
hatch removed. Two sailors came out of the man-hole. Where 
was the woman ? The crowd was angry at the delay. 

" Why didn't you bring that woman ? " demanded the keeper. 

" The woman is dead ! " was the answer. 



iS6 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

Dead, and in that awful isolation of the storm ! Coffined there 
in the cross-trees, the mast reeling amid the blows of the 
tempest, the body remained without a watcher during the night, 
but in the morning it was gone ! The mast had fallen, and the 
sea claimed its own. 

Uncle Nat gave the above story in his own words, adding, 
" A service tliat puts forth such splendid efforts to rescue life, 
deserves to be gratefully remembered. In ten years, from 1871 
to 1881, the number of persons rescued from vessels was eleven 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and the property saved 
was worth about fifteen millions of dollars. Some not on boai'd 
of vessels have been rescued. The energetic gentleman at its 
head, Honorable Sunnier I. Kimball, is determined to make the 
service as efficient as possible. This cause, in behalf of the sailor, 
is a great one, and good people ought to give it their sympathy 
and prayer." 

" And lend a hand at pulling on the rope," said Rob Merry, 
" to bring the life-car ashore." 

" People that pray will do that. We have over ten thousand 
miles of coast-line in this country, and there are many bad 
places on our oceans and lakes." 

The Guild took a walk to the lake and looked off upon its 
wide, mist-fringed waters. The sun had gone down in peace. 
Across the purple folds of curtain-like cloud, went loops of crimson 
and gold. The waters were at rest. And yet what a sullen 
gateway of storm those clouds might become, and the placid lake 
roll up its heavy billows and send them landward, thundering 
and battering 1 




CHAPTER X. 



THE TRACK-LAYERS. 



/"^HICAGO was left behind the next day, and the Guild went 
^~^ rapidly westward in the rumbling cars. 

" Look at that, Rick ! " said Rob Merry. " Quick ! " Rick's 
eyes were always open, or else could be opened at very short 
notice. Ahead, was a row of men busy in laying a side track. 
Some were carrying the heavy rails. One man was swinging a 
ponderous hammer and driving spikes into the sleepers, while a 
neighbor was measuring accurately the distance between rail and 
rail. Uncle Nat also looked out of the window, but the view 
was momentary, and the track-layers soon were hidden. Still uncle Nat 
continued to look out of the window, absorbed in the gaze, as if 
out of the earth, some of those fabulous creatures, the gnomes, 
had quickly sprung, bringing rails, and hammers, and sjiikes, and 
swinging their hammers with their grimy hands, had nimbly gom 
to work, track-laying. 

" What do you see ? " asked Ralph. 

" Track-layers," responded uncle Nat dreamily. 

"Where?" 

'' Oh," said uncle Nat, " I was thinking of those who laid 

'57 



IS8 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

tracks years ago — the early explorers of our country. Some of 
theui died like La Salle, in apparent ill-success, and yet the peo- 
ple following found that after all the old explorers had laid some 
kind of a track for them. Ponce de Leon, Ferdinand de Soto, and 

Marquette were track-layers. So 
was La Salle, that we heard 
about the oilier day." 

"Ponce du Leon." said Rob, 
" was the man who thought 
that somewhere was the Foun- 
tain of Youth. Drink of its 
waters and you would live for- 
ever." 

"Yes," said uncle Nat, "and 
it must have been a touching 
sight to see Ponce de Leon, 
no longer a young man, sailing 
away with his three ships, on 
the hunt for eternal youth." 

It was a " touching sight " in- 
deed. Juan Ponce de Leon had 
such faith in his project that, at 
his own expense, he fitted out 
three ships, sailing from Porto 

LOOKING WESTWARD. t) • All 1 11 

Kico. And when he reached a 
land of flowers, which he called Florida, commemorating Easter 
Sunday the day it was discovered, and a day called by the 
Spaniards Pascua Florida, and remembering also the flowers grow- 
ing there, it may have seemed as if the fount of youth were in 
this land. But though there were fair waters amid luxuriant for- 





FAIB WATEES AMID LTJXUKIAJfT FOEESTS. 



THE TRAC^-LAYERS. 



i6i 



ests thus richly nourished, no fount of youth could be found. 
The discoverer of the country left Florida only to return aud 
attempts its colonization. The Indians attacked the company of 
Ponce de Leon, and among the slain was the veteran leader. 
His fount of eternal youth was a fable, but the story of his 
romantic search will live. A good deed will survive our stay on 
^he earth, and show that its doer found some waters from which 
he drank strength and won for his good doing a lasting memory. 
Ferdhiand de Soto's dreams were less romantic and benevolent 
than Ponce de Leon's. De Soto had fought in Peru by the side 
of the blood}' Pizarro, and took to Spain some of the golden 
spoils. It was thought that farther north, hid away in the heart 
of the continent, were cities and temples as worthy of plunder 
as those south. De Soto went out to explore and conquer a vast, 
wealth}^, indefinite land titled Florida. How eager people were to 
go ! Houses were sold 
that their owners 
might raise money 
equal to the cost of 
an equipment for this 
q u i X o t ic expedition. 
Candidates for glory 
were so numerous 
that De Soto made a 
selection from them, 
and with this picked 
force, sailed jubilantly 
away. It was noticeable when they disembarked in Florida and 
began their venturous march, they took blood-hounds and chains 
for captives with which to make a peace-movement against the na> 




DE SOTO LANDliNU IN FLUHIDA. 



l62 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



■ ■■" jii 



lives ! And yet apparently, viewed on one side, it was a very reli- 
gious retinue. Tliere were priests with shaven heads, crosses lifted 
and planted, and the swarthy spectators that peeped from the depths 
of tlie southern forests saw solemn processions winding along, and 
humble worshippers bowing on their knees for a blessing. In 
those scenes we do not discover any one bowing for a l>lessing 
_^^ __ on bloodhounds and cap- 

. . '""r^^ tives' chains. What won- 

der if the hunt for gold, 
the chase for power, ended 
in repeated disappoint- 
ments ! The Indians were 
inimical. Their guides mis- 
led the invaders. March, 
1540, an Indian guide told 
them of a land governed 
by a woman, where gold 
abounded, and the art of 
melting and refining it 
was said to be understood 
there. " He must have 
seen it," said the Span- 
iards of the man who 
gave the process of ore- 
purifying so a c c u r ately, 
" or the Devil has been 
his teacher." The adven- 
turers continued the chase 

DE SOTO's BAND WORSHIPPING. , 

for the goose that laid the 
golden eggs, but the goose proved to be a wild one that refused 




THE TRACK-LAYERS. 



163 




io be caught. How far they travelled, Hungry, tired, sick, fight- 
ing with the Indians, and then troubled by woibe savages in 
their own hearts, their cupidity and cruelty ! One Indian captive 
very frankly said he knew of no such couniry as that which 
they described. The gover- 
nor, though, had such faith 
in this land of golden geese 
that he ordered the captive 
to be burnt for what was re- 
garded as a lying tongue. In 
one place, the soldiers were 
willing to settle, the land 
was so fertile. If that had 
only been done ! The refusal 
of the governor to settle was 
no more foolish than that of 
men who quit to-day corn-raising on a farm and go to the Rock- 
ies to pick for gold. In the earlier part of the year 1541, 
the fire dragon with which they had destroyed the Indian cap- 
tive, turned its hot, fatal breath toward them. The Spaniards 
were camping at night in a village of the Chickasaws, of Avhom 
they had made a comforting requisition for two hundred men to 
carry their loads. In the dead of night the Indians set fire to 
their own homes, and eleven Spaniards followed the burnt guide 
by a. roadway of flame into the next world, or parted with life 
in some othei" violent form that horrid night. No fire, though, 
had reached the purpose of the leader of the Spaniards. 
He was resolved to find yet the gokh'u land. If Mexico had 
only been reached, that land where Spanish conquerors had been 
so enriched ! It did not reveal itself, though, to this band. 



FIRING DE SOTO's CANNON. 



164 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



The Mississippi was reached and crossed. Two hundred canoes 
of savages, a gayly decorated retinue, came down the river to see 
the strangers. De Soto found no gold, only heartache and weari- 




KAKLY SETTI.i:i:- MKKllM. IMiIANS. 



ness. Another spring came and De Soto determined now to get 
to the sea by the Mississippi, but never got there. Men were 
sent to go down its banks and explore the country. Forests, matted 
cane-breaks, and bayous turned them back. De Soto was disappointed. 
His men were dying. The natives grew strong as he grew weak. 
He endeavored to bend to his will a tribe near the Mississippi, 
and he claimed to be of more than human birth. " You say 
you are the child of the sun," said the chief. " Dry up the 
river, and I will believe you. Do you desire to see me ? Visit 



THE TRACKLAYERS. 



165 



the town where I dwell. If you come in peace, I will receive 
you with special guod-will ; if in war, I will not shrink one 
foot back." De Soto was in a position to be humbled. He be- 
came the victim of melancholy. Fever set in and fatally termi- 
nated. At the dead of night, his followers stole out with his 
body upon the shadowy surface of the Mississippi, and there, under 
the glossy lid of the waters which became his casket, all trace 
of De Soto was covered up from friend and foe. His followers 
going west, after various adventures resolved to return to the 
Mississippi and go down the stream to the sea. What a mountain- 




A MEXICAN LANDSCAPE. 



effort they made in the building of brigantines ! They did a 
sensible thing. Erecting a forge, they knocked off the fetters of 
their slaves. Scraping up every bit of iron in camp, they made 
it over into nails. They used a hemp-like weed for calking. They 



i66 ALL ABOARD LOR TLLE LAKES AXD MOLXTAINS. 

killed even their horses fur food. Somehow, — anyhow, — seven piti- 
able brigantines, without decks, were launched and filled, and so 
De Soto's band floated out of a land that threatened to become 
a hopeless prison. Very dilferent from De Soto's band in size, 
spirit, and methods, was the company that went in the next 
century, with Joliet of Quebec and Marquette, a missionary of the 
Roman Catholic Church. Their aim was to find the Mississippi, 
and follow it in the interests of France. Two canoes held this 
memorable band that, turning west sailed down the Wisconsin 
River. Such a silent land ! They may have passed some forest, 
in whose shadowy depths the deer stood in the cool, hidden pools, 
or some prairie stretching away to the sky that met and girdled 
it with azure. In seven days the two canoes floated on new 
waters. " They entered happily the Great River," it is said of 
the voyagers, " with a joy that could not be expressed." About 
one hundred and eighty miles below the mouth of the Wisconsin, 
what was it they saw on the shore ? Footprints ? A beaten foot- 
path struck olf mto a prairie. Marquette and Joliet went off to 
hunt up the owners of the foot-path. They found villages ; and 
how did they meet the dusky proprietors of these ? Did they go 
back, rally any armed followers, and browbeat those they chanced 
to meet? "Commending themselves to God," says Bancroft, "they 
uttered a load cry." The Indians heard the cry, and came out 
in peace. And what a poetic welcome the explorers received ! An 
old chieftain met them at his door, and lifting his hands, ex- 
claimed : " How beautiful is the sun. Frenchmen, wlien thou 
comest to visit us! Our whole village awaits thee. Thou shalt 
enter in peace into all our dwellings." It was a triumphant as 
well as a hospitable reception Joliet and Marquette received. 
When they went on, Marquette said : '• I did not fear death. 1 




THE DEEB STOOD IN THE COOL, HIDDEN POOLS. 



THE TRACK-LAYERS. 169 

should have esteemed it the greatest happiness to have died for 
the glory of God." At one point it seemed as if such death 
might be imminent. What a crowd of savages pushed off from 
the shore ! They were in huge canoes made out of the trunks 
of hollow trees. Ugly clubs, sharp arrows, strong bows, and vari- 
ous interesting implements of war came with these whooping 
demons. At sight, though, of the peace-pipe lifted high, the old 
men were affected, and they restrained the younger warriors. 
They threw their bows and arrows into the canoes as a peace- 
sign, and welcomed the discoverers. The next day the Indians 
sent them an escort of ten men, who conducted them to the end 
of their voyage. Having found at least what the Mississippi did 
not do, that it did not go to the Gulf of California, nor to the 
ocean east of Florida, the explorers began the journey home- 
ward. Joilet went to Quebec. Marquette stayed with his beloved 
Indians. His health failed him, but still he continued his work 
for souls. He was on a journey when the summons to go hence 
was given. He entered a little river in Michigan to die. There 
upon the ground, after his devotions and after an interview with 
his companions, he begged to be left alone. Returning near the 
water that carries his name, they found his soul was breaking 
away from the bonds that held it. The body was not buried deep 
in the river, concealed there, but high up on a lofty bank his 
grave was dug in the sand. Put side by side De Soto's ponder- 
ous heavily-armed columns and Marquette's humble forces. Contrast 
their methods, and in the light of the contrast, decide whether 
the power that tramples, or the love that persuades, is to be 
king. 

Uncle Nat and the boys had much to say about the early 
explorers of America. And as the sea-captain spoke of the navi- 



170 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 



gatiuii of river and ocean, his interest in his subject i-apidly 
increased. Ol'f from the reel of his sea stories, he let run yarn 
after yarn about wrecks, cyclones, voyages and ships. 

" Sailors must stand some heavy blows," continued uncle Nat. 
" Men who are on the water learn something." 

"And don't boys?" asked Rick. 

" Boys ! " replied uncle Nat, with his tone rather than with any 
word expressing dissent. 

" Yes, uncle Nat, hoijs. I guess they find out something. Rick 




lill; LMm1;u.%a1E ZKKIEI. S UAT. 



and the rest of us had a boat when down at the salt water 
last summer, and didn't we have a time of it, one day, trying 
with our oars to fish 'Zekiel Toby's hat out of the water ? I 
guess we did. And didn't it make us late for the tide, and we 



THE TRACK-LAYERS. 



171 



couldn't row against it, and had to walk home foiu' miles ? I 
guess so." 

" 'Zekiel Toby ! " continued uncle Nat in the same tone, 
unmoved by the pathos of 'Zekiel's misfortunes. 

But when Rick remarked that some boys had sailed in the 
AntelopCj and therefore had found out something, uncle Nat con- 
ceded the point. To him, any connection with the Antelope 
exalted one to a place among the sea-kings of the world. 



-^ 




WESTWARD BOUND, IN FORMER DAYS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

TO YELLOWSTONE PARK. 

UNCLE NAT and his young companions were in a train shoot- 
ing along the iron rails stretching Westward from Chicago. 
"A few things I want you to see out in California and Wyoming," 
said Uncle Nat modestly. 

"A few things!" whispered Ralph to Rich. "That means 
something big." The cars sped away at an ex- 
hilarating rate. 

" Boys, this is somewhat different from the old 
style of going West when the emigrant teams 
would jolt and rumble along, halting at night to 
build a fire for supper and compelling the oxen to 
graze for a meal. Perhaps the good woman in 
the wagon would treat her clothes to a wash, and 
THE futureTresident. they would flutter about the wagon." 




TO I'ELLOWSTONE PARK. 



173 



"All sorts of people in the cars," remarked Rob Merry. 

"Yes, good many distinguished people in the train, I expect. 
That woman in the cars is having a hard 
time with that baby. He is trying most 
earnestly to distinguish himself," replied 
Rich laughing, "by screaming." 

"No telling. Rich, what 
that baby may become," 
said Ralph. " The baby is 
now kicking and yelling, that will 
be President some day. I am -^^'^ 
going up to speak to the 
future President." 

Here, Ralph went for- 
ward with a benevolent 
air and dangled his gold 
watch before the "Presi- 
dent's" watery eyes. 
This ereat beingr in a 
baby's dress was pleased 
to notice the appeasing 
object, and ceased his crying. His sobs 
grev/ shorter and shorter. Finally, 
with two fat hands, he clutched the 
beloved object and tried to swallow it ! 

"Musn't do so to the mannee's watch! 
Noee, no," said the woman speaking in 
nursery language which is "part English pwio^.^:^^^;^; '^~^^ 
and mostly Chinese." "The mannee -'-~~^'^~' 

isee very kind to zoo, yezee he isee! " Yellowstone river, near Livingston 







174 -•l'^^ ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

Ralph went back to his seat, feeling that he had devleoped sudden 
powers of a magical nature, for the infantile President was soon fast 
asleep, a fat fist having taken the place of the watch, and threaten- 
ing to disappear down his voracious and elastic throat. At last — the 
party reached Livingston Station on the Northern Pacific Railroad. 
From this point they journeyed with a large party of tourists to 
Yellowstone Park. In the northwestern corner of Wyoming, is a 
tract of land that can count up wonderful attractions. Canyons and 
waterfalls might naturally be expected. As it was a land of great 
volcanic activity in a geological period not so very distant, all the 
country heaving with fierce energy, it is not surprising if traces of this 
disturbance, certain shivers, still exist. These shivers take the form 
of geysers. The hot springs may also be included as volcanic 
shivers. As it is a land of great beauty in addition to these torrid 
attractions. Congress in 1872 set apart a district of three thousand 
five hundred and seventy five square miles as a public park, and the 
Secretary of the Interior, is the official e.xpected to provide for its 
supervision and care. Here is land extensive enough for all of 
Uncle Sam's great family who wish to come this way "picnicking." 
How lovely are certain sections of the landscape! Through some 
valley pours the Yellowstone, its sparkling crystal refiecting the 
graceful forms of the trees, or vainly endeavoring to preserve the 
image of the delicate, evanescent cloud-tufts. There were three feat- 
ures especially interesting to the guild, the geysers including the hot 
springs, the waterfalls, and Yellowstone Lake. 

Uncle Nat had already said, "Ralph, we shall rely on you for an 
account of geysers," and Ralph was ready with his description. 

"Words not only stand for objects, but they may tell where those 
objects are specially to be found. The word geyser signifying foun- 
tains that shoot up into the air columns of hot water, steam and mud, 
not only comes from a word meaning to gush, but this word is Ice- 




THE "old faithful" gf.yser, tellow sioxe park. 
175. 



TO YELLOWSTONE PARK. 



177 



landic. It shows that geysers abound in Ice- 
land, and first have a history there. Geysers 
are found to-day in many volcanic districts, but 
it is in Iceland, New Zealand and Wyoming 
(our country) that they are on the higher scale. 
In Iceland, the geysers are about fifty miles 
northwest of Hecla, and within a circuit of 
about two miles, upward of a hundred hot 




^— springs 
may be count- 
ed. The Great 
\^ Geyser has been known 
to throw a column from 
eighty to one hundred and 
fifty feet high. In New Zealand, the 
great geyser district is said to give effects 
far more interesting than those of Iceland, 
but it is owing not so much to the grandeur of the geysers as the 
quantity of steam-jets, mud volcanoes, and boiling springs, and very 



YELLOWSTONE RIVER IN THE PARK. 



lyS ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 




fanciful, too, on the rocks are 
the silicious deposits. The boil- 
ing water produces queer effects 
''^., I on the rocks. One geyser throws 
a column thirty or thirty-five feet 
high. It is Uncle Sam, though, 
that says to all the world, 'Come 
to this side of the water and 
visit my farm in Wyoming, and 
v Ift y^l see if I can't beat you,' " ("Hear, 
Kll I'lear," shouted Rich, adding a 
boisterous hurrah.) " Hot as 
Iceland and New Zealand springs 
may be, Wyoming leaves them 
out in the cold ! Here in Yellow- 
stone Park, we have Fire Hole 
River, a name given to a branch 
of the upper Madison. The 
'Giant' has been known to 
play for three hours and 
a half, reaching a height 
of two hundred feet. 
The 'Bee- 
hive' can 
touch the 
two hun- 
and nine- 
'Giantess' the two hundred 
the 'Castle' when it steps out 




d r e d 

teenth foot, the ^ 
and fiftieth foot, while v 
of the ground, can not only jump two hundred and fifty feet high, but 



VELLOWSTONH LAKE SCENERY. 




GREAT FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE. 
(179) 



TO THE rOSEMITE VALLEY. iSi 

makes the ground tremble as in an earthquake. It is ' Old Faithful ' 
that is famous for its regularity, This fire-engine plays every three- 
quarters of an hour. Rich won't forget one occasion when he ran 
from it." 

No, Rich never forgot, when hissing, spluttering, fuming, gushing, 
up, up, rose that magnificent column curving in beauty far overhead, 
and then tumultuously falling. 

The Yellowstone River is a child of the Yellowstone Lake, which 
is a beautiful sheet of water, over twenty miles by fifteen. It has 
picturesque islands gemming its surface. Leafy groves fringe its 
shores. Mountains in majesty rise above it and extend to it the ben- 
ediction of their long shadows. 

On its way to the far off sea, what a magic land the Yellowstone 
River glides through. There is the Grand Canyon with its profound 
gorges, its hoary crags, its hissing springs. And there are the Great 
Falls that go down, down, three hundred and fifty feet! With what 
grace and majesty does our Queen of this magic-land drop from 
the edge of her rocky throne in the wilderness her broad, snowy 
robes, hiding her feet forever in billowy, massive folds of vapor- 
drapery ! 

"Our next destination boys, is San Francisco," said Uncle Nat, as 
they took the cars again. " We will make as good time as we can." 
Their stay in San Francisco was short, and they were off again. 
About a hundred and fifty miles from San Francisco, in an easterly 
direction, is a wonderful treasure-box ; its sides are the mountains, its 
blue lid the sky. For many years the Indians alone had the key to 
this treasure-box. No white man knew of it. Savages held it as a 
rallying place, but they were driven from it, and then Uncle Sam 
very gracefully gave the key of it to California and empowered the 
State to hold and improve the valley as a public park. To take a 



iS3 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

look under its blue lid into this treasure-box, is now popular every- 
where. " Bound for Yosemite, boys," said Uncle Nat, as they left 
San Francisco. "Tell me what you think it will look like." 

Rob Merry and Ralph prudently gave up the attempt to guess. 
No challenge ever intimidated Rich. 

"I guess it is a valley of course, and there is a river, and there are 
rocks either side of the valley ; say five times as high as Bunker Hill 
Monument, and there are waterfalls. Uncle Nat." 

"We shall see, boys." 

When they reached the valley, they gained an elevated point and 
looked off upon the wonders of Yosemite. They saw a deep, long 
valley scooped out of the mountain edges. The waters of the Merced 
flashed like one glittering layer of jewels at the bottom of this treas- 
ure-bo.\. On either hand the mountains towered in a grandeur that 
made everything human seem ant-like and mean. 

At the right, a waterfall came tumbling into the valley, marking the 
face of the cliffs with a white snow-line. Mountains finally rose up, 
swinging their rocky gate across the valley and stopping the view. 

"What do you think of it?" asked Uncle Nat. 

"Glorious!" affirmed Rob. 

" Don't feel like talking," replied Ralph. 

As for Rich, he was capering about, stick in hand, with eyes and 
mouth shaped into continual interjections of wonder. 

"Ralph's silence," thought Uncle Nat, "is the best compliment 
that could be paid this place." 

The Yosemite Valley is near the head waters of the Merced River 
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Through the valley, from east to 
west, flashes the Merced. Yosemite is about a mile wide, and its 
length is variously estimated from six to eight miles, while mountains 
rise above it from two to four thousand feet. It is long enough and 




LOOKING DOWN INTO YOSF.MITE. 



('83) 




TO THE rOSEMITE VALLET. 1S5 

wide enough and deep enough to have capacity for attractions that 
are also wonders. 

As they journeyed through the valley, Uncle Nat said, " Don't for- 
get, boys, that we are four thousand feet above the level of the sea 
when we stand on the floor of the valley. There's El Capitan." 

At the left was an immense mountain cliff of stone 
at which various enthusiastic tourists were gazing, one 
enraptured lady exclaiming, "Oh — oh !" 

"That is only thirty-three hundred feet higher than 
we are." 

" Only !" exclaimed Ralph. " That means over half 
a mile." 

"See what a solid look it has, and what a magnificent 
front ! ' The Captain ' is no mean character." 

On the opposite side of the valley, was Bridal Veil Falls with its 
sonorous Indian name, Po ho no. 

" There is a tumble of water, boys, for nine hundred feet. It's 
name Po ho no is said to mean 'Spirit of the Evil Wind.' There's 
music in the name, but not in the meaning." 

They watched a long while the exquisite, fluttering veil that 
dropped its lace-like, snowy folds down the side of the rocky steep. 
There was Cathedral Rock with its lofty granite wall and towers sug- 
gesting a cathedral front. There were the "Three Brothers," that one 
writer has described as " three lofty peaks" above the valley, "and 
each leans his head toward it as if looking in." What wonder if they 
lean ! Their height is over thirty-eight hundred feet, and dizziness 
may well be pardoned. 

"You see how those peaks seem to lean over," said Uncle Nat. 
"The Indian imagination works more quickly than ours, and they 
saw these three mountains playing leap-frog ! so they called the 




SENTINEL ROCK, YOSEMITE VALLEV. 



group Pom-pom-pa- 
rus, 1 think that 
beats ' Three Bro- 
thers.' It is a pity 
the name was 
changed." 

"I would like to 
be up there and try 
a game of leap frog 
with you, Rob and 
Ralph," siad Rich, 
his eyes sparkling. 
Rob was willign. 
Ralphs' thoughts 
were on that more 
dignified subject, 
the o-lories of Yose- 
mite, and he made 
no reply. When he 
reached Sentinel 
Rock, on the side of 
the valley opposite 
" El Capitan," and 
be yond it, Ralph 
said he would like 
to climb that. 

What a towering 
mass of granite, 
shooting up three 
thousand feet above 
the valley's bed ! 

(iS6) 



TO THBYOSEMITE V ALLEY. 187 

One bold, frowning, almost perpendicular ledge, terminatnio- in a 
sharp peak, that sentinel-like overlooked the valley ! 
"A picnic party!' cried Rich. 

Looking up, they saw near a scraggy pine a party of sight seers 
with shawls, sticks, lunch bags and opera-glasses. Several ladies were 
in the party. 

" They won't climb very far," said Uncle Nat. " I was reading of 
a party that reached the highest peak of the Sentinel, but one in 
climbing, grew dizzy. He fell backward, but fortunately his feet 
caught between two rocks, and these gripped and held him till he 
could be relieved." 

Among the grand magnets in the valley, were the Yosemite Falls. 

"There," said Uncle Nat, " I am glad they kept the name of that 

tumble of water. Yosemite means " Large Grizzly Bear." Some 

English names that they give to places when they have robbed them 

of their Indian titles, are weak as toast-water." 

The entire plunge is about twenty-five hundred feet, but in three 
divisions; the first measuring fifteen hundred feet, the second six hun- 
dred and the third four hundred. 

"Large Grizzly Bear!" that mass of water, springing like an ani- 
mal down into the abyss, a great, shaggy whiteness, angry, growl- 
ing, splashing and dashing, restless, foaming, leaping from 
point to point in immense, furious leaps — is it named in- 
appropriately, "Large Grizzly Bear?" 

Other objects of large interest kept our party busy for 
a week in the valley. 

"When I travel," said Uncle Nat, " I am not only in- 
terested in nature but humanity. Look at that !" 

He pointed out a specimen traveler whose great aim 
LOOK AT THAT. \^ jjfg seemed to be the propelling of a cigar and the 
swaying of a cane. 




i88 7HE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 

" I found an old acquaintance," said Ralph. " I got lost, when 
I saw at the foot of a tree a baby, that one we saw before we reached 
Livingstone. It was lying fast asleep at the foot of a tree. I went 
up to it, and then there came the woman we met with it in the cars. 
How she smiled ! She knew me at once. I told her I was off 
the path. She righted me quickly and said I was not far from 
the right way. She and the baby and other friends are visiting 
here." 

"All this proves, young man," said Rich, "that it is well to make 
friends as you go through life." 

From the Yosemite they went to inspect some of California's Big 
Trees. 

" Oh ! oh ! " exclaimed Ralph ! 

" Oh ! oh ! " exclaimed Rich ! 

" Oh ! oh ! " exclaimed Rob. 

" I declare," said Uncle Nat, thrusting his hands into his pockets 
and puckering up his mouth into a whistle, "if those trees are not 
busters, as nurse Fennel would say ! " 

They were mighty trees indeed, before which Uncle Nat and the 
boys stood. California's " Big Trees" are famous all the world over. 
These inhabited the Calaveras Grove. 

" That kind we are looking at is known by botanists as Sequoia 
gigantca" remarked Uncle Nat. 

" Where did that name come from ?" asked Ralph. 

" Gigantea of course means gigantic. Sequoia or Sequoyah, that 
is the name, they tell me, of a Cherokee Indian in whose veins was 
mixed blood. His English name was George Guess. He is thought 
to have been born about 1 770, and his home was in a northerly corner 
of Alabama. Sequoyah was a man of much ability. He strung to- 
gether an alphabet for his tribe, and there were eighty-six characters 




THE RIDE THROUGH THE BIG TREES. 



in it, each characetr 
standing for a sylla- 
ble. When the 
Cherokees wen 
westward, Sequoy- 
ah followed them 
and died in New 
Mexico, about 
forty years ago. 
He gave a name — 
or rather the bota- 
nists have taken 
it for this tree, so 
that its title is the 
Gigantic Sequoy- 
ah or putting it into 
more Latin dress, 
Sequoia. 

"Well'," said 
Rich, " I should 
like to know how 
much those trees 
would measure." 

They stood 
wonderingly before 
a mammoth tree 
titled "Pluto's 
C h i m n e y," and 
what a chimney! 
The workman that 
did this work for 
Pluto was a fire and 

(1 89) 



190 ALL ABOARD FOR 7 HE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

it hollowed out a recess on the north side of the tree, ninety feet 
high ! A fireplace measuring ninety feet from the hearth to the roof! 

" How high I would like to know is the whole thing?" asked Rich. 

"The tree!" said Uncle Nat. "Two hundred and eighty feet, 
one account says, and seventeen feet in diameter. That means 
between fifty and sixty feet in circumference. However, there are 
bigger trees than this. Let's move along." 

They found " Starr King," towering up to the magnificent altitude 
of three hundred and sixty-six feet. And there was the " Father of 
the Forest," fallen now, and yet a tape string to clasp the trunk at 
the base must be one hundred and twelve feet long ! when he stood 
erect, he must have been four hundred and fifty feet high ! What an 
awful uproar there must have been in the forest when he bowed his 
head and came crashing to the ground ! In the trunk is a cavity 
two hundred feet long. The fire one day took its yellow auger and 
tried its hand at boring, and the hole was large enough to allow a 
person to ride through on horseback. 

" Now boys," said Uncle Nat, "we must see the Mariposa Grove." 

Off they were driven to this group of giants, a ride of about sixteen 
miles from Yosemite Valley. What scarred and rugged mammoths 
they found here. How they went up, up, toward the sky, stretching 
out their monstrous arms, their proud leafy tops looking down in 
scorn on the pigmy men crawling about their trunks far below. 

Rob, Ralph and Rich were riding on the outside of the stage that 
carried them, 

" Oh, see that tree with a big hole in it, Ralph," said Rob. 

" Yes, and I heard a man tell uncle at the hotel a story about a 
tree that had a big hole in it; somebody was going through it, riding 
on a mule. He had a companion — " 

"What, the mule had?" 



TO 2-ELLOWSTONB PARK. 



.91 



" No, no, the man had, and it wasn't the mule, either. Looking 
ahead, they saw two men on horseback coming the other way. "How 
shall we pass?" said the companion, because you know, he was 
puzzled to think of a way for getting round those people on horseback. 
' I will show you,' said the man, and what did he do but slip off his 
mule and climbed through a knot-hole, pulling his mule after him." 
" I would like to go through a hole somewhere, Ralph," declared 
Rich. " Look, look, see that big hole in the tree before us, and our 
road goes through it ! Oh, jolly, we are going to ride through a Sq- 
Squire ! " 

" Sequoia, " said Ralph with complacency. 

Ride they did, through a hole in the base of the trunk of the tree 
called the " Wawona." The driver cracked his whip. The horses 
tossed their heads and proudly shook their manes. There was a 
clapping of hands by the passengers, while Ralph and Rich hurrahed. 
When the ride was over and the hotel had been reached again. 
Uncle Nat and his nephews enthusiastically discussed the merits of 
the bio- trees. 

" There other great trees in California," said Uncle Nat. " There 
is the Redwood which botanists call Sequoia semper virens, and there 
are Sugar-pines also, and splendid oaks." 

" How old are those monsters we saw to-day ?" inquired Ralph. 
" Their age is determined by the rings of growth that you see 
inside the trunks of those which are fallen, and I have heard 
them classified at various big figures. In the forests we 
saw to-day, I suppose some would say there were trees a 
thousand years old, two thousand and more. When you 
talk of four thousand, as some one has asserted, I want to 
see proof." 

From California, Uncle Nat led his companions back over 
ON THE mountains iourneving- eastward till they reached Denver. 





A COOL PLACE. 



CHAPTER XII. 



NEAR THE ROCKIES. 



"pvENVER ! Denver ! " shouted the brakeman. 
•*-^ "All right! Come, boys!" exclaimed uncle Nat, looking 
round after the Guild, whom he seemed to regard as parts of 
himself ; and when one was missing, it was as if uncle Nat had 
left an arm or a leg somewhere, but could not locate the lost 
article. After a moment of fluttering, turning this way and that, 
he said, " Oh, here you are, Rob, Ralph, and Rick ! ^Ye will 
take a hack and go directly to our hotel." 

As the Guild rode off, uncle Nat put his head out of the 
window, and said : 

"Whew! How Denver grows! In 1859 people came here who 
were interested in mining, and it was i miner's town, a sort of 
camp. Look now at its streets and fine buildings. Why, the last 
United States census gave Denver over thirty-five thousand people. 
I guess, boys, after we have had a ramble I'ound the city, we 
will hear some of those essays, brilliant and strong, that you 
have been preparing." 

" All ready when you say, except the ' brilliant and strong' 

ones," said Rob Merry, "and uncle Nat will furnish those." 

192 




MOUNT OF THE HOLY CliOSS. 



NEAR THE ROCKIES. 195 

It was a lively ramble that they enjoyed about Denver that day. 
They vs^atched the waters of the South Platte River, gliding by the 
city, rippling in the wind that blew with a refreshing coolness 
from the snow-banks on the Rocky Mountains. They saw the trains 
shooting along the network of tracks girdling the city. The 
churches, the street-cars, the banks, the private residences, the 
children coming from school, the flow of life along the business 
streets, they eagerly enjoyed. And the view of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, its base line only fifteen miles from the city, who can describe 
it ? That dark, magnificent wall of rock and forest, with its 
watch towers of eternal snow, who can put it all in words ? 

The Guild watched the light dying on the mountain-tops. The 
snowy summits grew dim, as if receding behind a veil that the 
shadows wove for their shining glory, grew paler, faded, and were 
gene, gone till the morning sun kindled on them the white 
lustre of lily beds from the Gardens of Paradise. 

Tired and hungry, the Guild came to the hotel. Refreshed by 
the supper, uncle Nat and the boys went to a room to listen 
to several papers. Rick began : 

" Colorado is a State that has plenty of mountains, very high, 
and some of them very strange. One of the handsome mountains 
is the Mount of the Holy Cross, over thirteen thousand feet high. 
It takes its name from the fact that its ravines, filled with snow, 
take the form of a cross. Pike's Peak is a famous mountain. 

"Colorado not only has some fine mountain scenery, but fine 
valleys. They are upland valleys, and are called parks. There are 
four, which are named the North, the Middle, the South and the 
San Luis ; and they go almost in a line from the top to the bottom 
of the State. These are great places for pasturing sheep and 
cattle. Colorado is famous for big caiions. But Ralph will tell 



196 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

about these. What a start the minerals of Colorado gave it ! 
There were only Indians here, when, in 1858, a Mr. Russel 
found gold on the banks of the Platte River, not far from Den- 
ver, or where Denver is. People came pouring in and pouring 
in. In thirteen years from 1859, Denver being founded that 
year, the miners took twenty million of dollars worth of gold 
out of the earth. Colorado had about two hundred thousand 
people by the last census. One other famous thing about Colorado 
I would mention, the Colorado tramp. It never has gone very 
fast, but has made out to travel about a hundred miles a year, 
and has kept at it, so that starting about the time the gold 
diggers came, it at last got to our side of tlie country. It likes 
rather showy clothes for a tramp, because I suppose it came from a 
gold country. It wears a yellow coat with dark spots. It is fond 
of stripes also, but it takes ten black ones to satisfy it. The 
Colorado tramp is only about half an inch long, so that it does 
not take much to clothe it, but it has a remarkably good appetite. 
Travelling, I suppose, makes it hungry, and if it loved pig-weed, 
and sorrel, and pepper-grass, it wouldn't make so much difference, 
but as it goes along, it likes to lunch on the potato plant, and that 
is bad for the farmer. Nurse Fennel, when she knew we were 
coming here, said it almost ' 'gin her a spite ag'in Colorado for 
sendin' such a crittur to Concord as that ere bug.' " 

From the Guild a ready murmur of approbation greeted this 
opinion that Nurse Fennel cherished so warmly. 

"Does not Colorado mine a good deal of silver?" inquired Rob. 

" Oh, yes ; I forgot that," said the essayist. " And there is 
iron, too — zinc and copper, and a good deal of coal." 

It was Ralph's turn to tell about the Colorado River and its 
canons : 



NEAR THE ROCKIES. 



199 



"Tlie Colorado is a large river, making its way into tlie Gulf 
of California. The Rocky Mountains supply it with water, and 
several contributions are sent from Colorado. That which makes 
this river one of special interest is the existence of vast ravines, 




SWALLOW COVE. 



called canons, through which its waters are poured. There is one 
canon, the Black, which is twenty-five miles long. It is one 
thousand or fifteen hundred feet high or deep, just as you may 



200 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 




W.VTEK AS A CAKVEB IN JIU-KOON-TU-\VEAP CANOW. 

be pleased to put it. If we had this at the East, we should 
tliink it a world's wonder ; but there is another canon still more 
marvellous, the Grand Cailon, and grand it is. Its walls almost 
shoot up from the water's brink to a vast height of perhaps four thou- 



NEAR THE ROCKIES. 201 

sand and even seven thousand feet. In length, it is about two hundred 
miles. 

" We also have lines of cliffs that have great length and great height. 
These may succeed one another like terraces. Then we find buttes, big 
masses of rock like domes, or cones. When we were in California, on 
our way to Japan, we saw a gentleman who told us about canons,* that 
they may have been formed through the wrinkling of the earth's surface, 
rising through some geological change just a little, but not enough to 
stop any river ultimately. The river rubbing against the wrinkle, rubs 
through it, and if the process of wrinkling goes on, the land rising, and 
yet the river rubbing and wearing down, by and by a deep canon must 
be there. As for the buttes, it is thought that if two side-canons should 
meet and the water keep on cutting, it would carve out these tower-like 
buttes. 

" There is something to my mind very strange, something awful when 
you think of the changes going on in these dismal canons through the 
long ages, the water has been so long rushing there, and so long cut- 
ting its way steadily on ! And to-day this work is continued, un- 
noticed, save as a bird flies over the chasm, or an Indian steals down 
into it." 

Ralph was right in that character of strangeness, that aspect of awe, 
which he claimed for this cailon-work. But is it noticed only by the 
sharp eyes of the little birds ? Does only the Indian see it, chancing to 
plash with his paddle the water in the cane -'s trough ? Stand where you 
can look along the jagged lines of the Gran. Canon, where you can see 
the projecting summits of its buttes rising like the domes and pinnacles 
of some deserted, silent city. Is there not an Infinite Eye all the 
time watching the slow process of change going on down in the 
canon's dismal depths or around the majestic tops of the buttes ? 

• See " All Aboard for Sunrise Lands," pp. .38, .39. 



^02 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



Is not he the architect supervising the work of the water that 
he has commissioned to carve and cut far down in the canon, 
or the work of the cloud, and the rain, and the wind, and the 

sun that he has ordained to 
shape these buttes into the pat- 
terns he gives? There is some- 
thing impressive in the steadfast, 
man-isolated fashioning of the 
rocks going on from age to age, 
where drops of water are the 
stone cutters, and vapor and 
wind are the polishers. But it 
is not a fashioning isolated from 
all supervision. The Divine Eye 
seems to be looking down in the 
sun, the Divine Voice speaking 
in the thunder. Certainly the 
Divine Presence is there. This 
great workshop has a Master. 
The boys were discussing 
Ralph's paper, when Rick asked, 
" And of course there are water- 
falls in Colorado ? " 

" Oh, yes," replied uncle Nat. 
" There are very few things but 
what Colorado can furnish them 
somewhere." 

Rob was ready with his paper 
on the Rocky Mountains : " If 
I were obliged to climb one to-night, I should not be so cheer- 




MAKY'8 VEIL, THE UTPKU F.^LI- ON P. C. 
SMALL TRIBUTAIiY OF THE SEVIER. 



NEAR THE ROCKIES. 203 

ful. Only think of it, peaks running up eleven, twelve, thirteen, 
fourteen, almost fifteen thousand feet high ; and if we go up into 
British America, there is Mount St. Elias almost twenty thousand 
feet up toward the moon ! And such a long stretch of rock 
through the United States, British America, and Alaska ! We 
might add also the mountains in Mexico and Central America to 
this system, but we have enough to climb without them, and 
will speak of mountains north. Where is our little Appalachian 
system ? It seems humble enough. ' Rocky ' is a good name for these 
mountains, so many bare, craggy ledges are there. There have 
been a good many volcanoes sputtering here and there along this 
line, and they have torn and shattered the rocks. There are 
various ranges in the United States, like the Desert Park, Sierra 
Nevada coast, and others. It is in the Sierra Nevada that we 
find Mount Shasta running up its proud head over fourteen thou- 
sand feet. The Rocky Mountains are of great importance in this 
country. They start the rivers that go east or west. They keep 
down the temperature with their snow-refrigerators on their sum- 
mits and can supply ice for the continent. They have depths 
packed with minerals. They have natural scenery enough to de- 
light everybody that will come. In the future, when people 
crowd this way, the ' Rockies ' will have much to say about the 
political history of this country. Neither now are they, or have 
they been in the past, humbled into a do-nothing part in the 
geological history of our continent. Of what consequence have 
they been in the past ! 

" A writer on the subject of the Yale College expedition of 1870, 
to the neighborhood of these mountains, says, ' The peaks of the 
Rocky Mountains once projected as islands from a vast inland sea. 



204 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

whose waves swept from the Gulf of Mexico to the polar ocean. 
In this era of the world, a tropical climate extended far beyond 
the Arctic Circle, and the tepid waters swarmed with sea-serpents 
and other reptilian monsters. At the close of this period, known 
to geologists as the cretaceous, a slow upheaval drained this ocean 



THE GKAND CANON OF THE siKRRAS. ( I'liintinr/ by Thomris Hill.) 

from the continent, and left behind great lakes, whose shores and 
waters teemed again in tertiary time with new forms of tropical 
life. The rhinoceros, crocodile, and huge tortoise basked upon the 
banks, or lay beneath the shade of gigantic palms, and as 
the ages rolled away, prolific nature brought upon the scene the 
mammoth the mastodon and horse. During the tertiary period, mud 



NEAR THE ROCKIES. 



205 



and sand accumulated in the lakes to the depth of many hundred 
feet, and entombed the bones of all these animals. Then came a 
time when all was dry, and torrents from the mountains wore through 
the deep accumulations. Ages have passed since then, while rains and 
streams have toiled to wash away the work of all the prior years ; and in 
the crumbling bluifs that now survive as memorials of the past, 

the patient geologist may 

find the petrified remains 
of all the forms of life 
belonging to that earlv 
time.' The results of the 
expedition proved the 
above. At the mouth 
of one canon opening on 
a plain of Northern Col- 
orado, they found, among 
other things, a fossil rhi- 
noceros. A vast creature 
was found having a lower 
jaw that measured over 
four feet in length. At 
the North Platte, from a •^'"^''■^■" ^"^'^^' ""'■^' '"^ "■"''■'"• 

gulley, a member of the party brought a welcome relic, for on 
the back of his horse was lashed an immense petrified turtle. 
Near the Green River, in Wyoming, some petrified fishes were 
found, and also some fossil insects, a gigantic mosquito among 
them. That shows what a long-lived pest this last race is. Along 
the Smoky River, starting from Fort Wallace, in Kansas, the expe- 
dition also searched, and one trophy was the skeleton of a sea- 
serpent nearly complete, and so large that they spent four days in 




2o6 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

digging it out and removing it to camp. This monster when alive 
could not have been less than sixty feet in length.' It is said that 
he had a mouth like that of the boa-constrictor, and could easily have 
disposed of the largest of the reptiles and fishes living in his day. 
I pity the creature that was a resident in his neighborhood." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



A MUTUAL FIND. 



TOE PIGTAIL, I do believe!" 
^ " Joe Pigtail, I do not believe ! " 

"Why, yes, it is, Ralph." 

"Why, no, it isn't. Rick." 

" He has got Joe's walk." 

" Got Joe's fiddlesticks ! How do you remember how he 
walked ? " 

" Remember ? Didn't I see him enough times on board the 
steamer when we went to Japan ! " 

" But that was — let me see how long ago ? " 

" Oh, what a short memory, if you can't remember Joe Pig- 
tail ! " 

Ralph now turned away, saying, " I must be looking after my 
supper." 

He went toward the dining-room, whistling Yankee Doodle. 
There was an endless programme of tunes in Rick's music-box, 
but he did not execute response. In silence he sat down to 
look out of a window that all day long directed its glassy eye 
toward the street. 

" That is Joe ! " murmured Rick, as he watched a young 
Chinaman, little-eyed, blue-bloused, and scuffing along the street in 

his wooden shoes. Whisking his cap off from a hook. Rick bur- 

207 



2o8 ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

ried away, and stopping at the dining-room door, sent to Riilph 
a half-suppressed announcement of his departure : 

"Going, Ralph!" 

" Wh-wh-where? " replied Ralph, who had already seated him- 
self and begun to put away a biscuit. 

" Ch-ch — " replied Rick, hurrying off. 

Ralph heard no more, but concluded that Rick had said 
•■ ch-urcli," and this good boy was therefore going to an evening 
service in a church they had noticed near by. The good boy, 
though, had said " Chinaman," uttering the most of his word 
out in the entry, while rushing off. 

Ralph finished his supper and retired with Rob Merry to their 
room. Two hours went by. Uncle Nat, who had been calling on 
a Denver acquaintance, now appeared. 

"Where's Rick?" he asked. 

" Gone to church, I think," replied Ralph. 

" Church ? Well, he ought to be back by this time, unless it 
is a church where people take their beds and uitend to pass the 
night." 

" That is what some of them would like to do," said Rob 
Merry, " judging by their sleepy looks in church-time." 

" Guess I must look after that boy. I will inquire at the 
office if they know about him ; " and uncle Nat withdrew. 

At the office, the clerk said, " I passed a lively boy — and I 
guess it was yours — and I heard him say something about 
' Chinaman ;' that he wanted to look one up." 

"Deliver us!" cried uncle Nat. "What is that boy up to?" 

Returning to Ralph and learning that somebody like the precious 
Joe Pigtail had been seen by Rick from the window, uncle Nat 
was starting off to find Rick. 



A MUTUAL FIND. 209 

" You might take him!'' said the hotel-clerk, pointing at a man 
in citizen's dress. " He is a detective." 

Uncle Nat secured his company, as he was familiar with sev- 
eral localities where Joe Pigtail's countrymen were doing business. 
Long before this, Rick had arrived at such a locality, having 
eagerly followed the wooden-shoed Celestial and overtaken him at 
a bright red door. 

" Joe ! " said Rick. 

The Chinaman turned. Was it Joe ? He did look something 
like the Joe of other days, and yet the resemblance was not 
close. The Joe of to-day grinned and said, " Come in ! " Rick 
entered and sharply inspected the Celestial's saffron features. 

" I guess you are not Joe," said Rick, in disappointed tones. 
"And yet you look like him. Perhaps you are Joe's brother." 

"Me? Me washee-man." 

" And not Joe's brother ? I mean" — 

Rick halted. He was about saying " Joe Pigtail," but how 
would this saffron-man know about the owner of that fanciful 
name, " Joe Pigtail ? " The Chinaman, though, had caught the 
word " brother," which he had heard before, and knew that the 
Americans applied it to the members of that firm to which he 
belonged. He and a brother made the firm. Guessing that Rick 
wanted to see the brother, he remarked, "He outee. You — 
you-!" 

Here he pulled forward a red, sunrise kind of a chair and mo- 
tioned to Rick to sit down. " Do you mean that your brother is 
out and you want me to wait ? Well, I guess I will. It won't 
do any harm, and if either of you know Joe's folks, I .should 
like to know it." 

The Chinaman seemed to be very much nleased with Rick's 



2IO 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOi\\TAIKS. 



decision to occupy the chair. He smiled at Rick, bowed, rubbed 
his hands together as if washing a very promising piece of cloth. 




ENTUANCE TO PA-KU-NU-WESP. 



and then retired to an inner room where Rick heard at once the 
sounds of an actual rubbing. 

" Plash, plash, plash ! " went Joe Pigtail's countryman at the 
adjoining washtub. It was not a remarkably musical sound, and 
yet it was a uniform beat, beat, of the washboard, inclining to 
greater sleepiness any drowsily disposed person. Rick was that 



A MUTUAL FIND. 



211 



drowsily disposed individual. He was tired ; he thought it would 
be " so nice to have a cup of tea " to refresh him. He leaned his 
chair back against tlie wall, and rested his head upon a flaming 
scarlet panel that sustained a toothless, clawless, motionless, harm- 
less dragon. The boy was fast asleep. How long he slept, how 
many clothes the Chinaman washed. Rick could not say. He was 




" so NICE TO HAVE A CTP OF TEA." 



aroused by the sound of voices. Opening his eyes, he saw four other 
eyes looking at him ; two yellow faces were bending over him. 

" Wantee to see me ? " 

It was not the first Chinaman speaking, and Rick concluded 
at once that it was the brother who looked still more unlike the 
much desired Joseph. 



212 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

" Me washee you ? " said the grinning Celestial. 

" Oh, no ! " replied Rick, who shrank from such contact with 
the suds of the washtub. What did this young American want ? 

" Me — you — him — washee — you — for me ? " asked Celestial No. 
Two, pointing hysterically at himself, then at Rick, next at his 
brother, fourthly at Rick, and finally at himself. 

"Washee — you — for — me?" Rick turn laundryman ? Impossi- 
ble! He now rose from his chair, bowed politely (Nurse Fennel 
always said that "• perliteness with the Rogerses was a nat'ral born 
gift ") and then remarked, " I am afraid, gentlemen, there is some 
mistake, and I am sorry I have made you so much trouble. 
Neither of you is my friend that I wanted to find, but I am 
much obliged to you. Good evening ! " 

All this Chin Sing and his brother Ping interpreted as a deter- 
mination to patronize Nong Tong or some other Tong. They 
looked sorry, and Rick certainly felt sorry to think he could not 
find Joe Pigtail. He returned in a melancholy frame of mind to 
the hotel, there to be startled by the discovery of the fact that 
uncle Nat had gone off to hunt him up. 

" Yes," said his informant, the patronizing hotel clerk, " that is 
what he is up to. He told the boys up-stairs to go to bed and 
get some sleep, and he would hunt for you, and my advice to 
you, young man" — here this disagreeable clerk, so Rick thought, 
eyed him very sharply, as if his eyes were a gimlet and Rick 
was so much bad, knotty wood to be bored through and through 
— " my advice to you is to go to bed early like the chaps up- 
stairs, and not keep your poor old father tramping round for you." 

" My poor old father ! " replied Rick. " He is neither poor, nor 
old, nor my father. And when I want advice, I sha'n't ask it 
of you." 



A MUTUAL FIND. 



213 



What would Nurse 
Fennel have said ? 

" I don't believe Rob 
and Ralph have gone 
to bed," muttered Rick, 
moving off. No, they 
had not gone to bed, 
for uncle Nat had not 
given them any such 
orders ; but were they 
in ? Rick opened the 
door. The gas was 
burning, but the room 
was empty. 

" Looking for those 
boys ? " asked a lodger 
in a room opposite, 
who chanced to be 
passing along the entry. 
"If you are, they are 
hunting up somebody 
who is missina;." 

" Hunting up some- 
body," thought Rick. 
" That is Rick Rogers." 
The thought startled 
him. He concluded that 
he would start off and 
" hunt up somebody," 
and tell them that the 




A DEKI" C iI.dKADd ]! WINE. 



214 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

" missing one " had arrived. He hurried down-stairs, stepped out- 
doors, and then stood on the sidewalk, looking with sharp ejes 
into the night to see if he could detect any one resembling uncle 
Nat, or Rob, or Ralph. 

"Hallo, Sonny! what's up?" 

Rick turned his eyes in the direction of this voice, and there 
between him and the street-lamp, stood a policeman. 

"What's up?" the Denver Dogberry asked again. 

" I was looking for my uncle." 

"He got lost?" 

Rick was ashamed to acknowledge the exact situation of affairs. 
He simply remarked, 

" He's gone oif somewhere." 

" Is he apt to go ? " 

Rick did not hear this question. He was rather absent-minded 
at times, and just now reflecting on his solitary state, he mur- 
mured, " Lonely ! " 

" Luny ! " exclaimed the Denver Dogberry, catching at the word, 
and all the more readily because he prided himself on the pos- 
session of certain unusually fine qualities as a detective. " Luny ! 
Ah, that is the matter ! The man ought to be looked up. Stray- 
ing off ! He will get into difficulty," reflected the Denver Dog- 
berry. The possibility that there might be a reward for bringing 
uncle Nat^ back to his friends, quickened the policeman's sense of 
duty toward this lunatic at large. 

" Sonny ! " 

This startled Rick out of his reverie. 

" Walk down a piece, and we may see your uncle," said the man. 

The two went off together, and now who should start on the 
hunt but the clerk ! 




HORSESHOE CANON. 



^ MUTUAL FIND. 217 

" That little nuisance has gone off once more ! He is making 
his friends trouble enough, but I will stop it. Porter," he said, 
" tend here, please, for me." 

He put on his hat and rushed off, not only stirred by the con- 
victions of duty, but by the thought that the " poor old father " 
might "fee" him. 

" There he is ! " exclaimed Rick, suddenly spying by the light 
of a store window tlie coat-tails of uncle Nat going round a cor- 
ner. Apparently the lunatic was alone, but the attendant he took 
with him was close at hand, astride a fence, and looking into an 
alley. 

Why he should look there, it would be hard to explain, unless 
on the principle that when one does not know exactly where to 
search for missing goods, he is sure to look in the most unlikely 
places. He was therefore inspecting this alley. 

"Ho! Is that he?" asked Rick's Dogberry, only seeing a citizen 
on the fence. "' Just let me go for him ! Softly, now ! " 

While he was fiercely gripping the supposed lunatic on the fence, 
Ralph and Rick from an opposite quarter were bearing down on 
uncle Nat whom they had just detected in the gas-light. 

" Ho, uncle Nat ! " they shouted. 

" The little villain ! " called out another voice. It was the clerk, 
now seizing Rick in the interests of his friends, while Rick had 
just fastened his grip on uncle Nat's coat-tails. 

" See here ! What are you doing ? Do you know whom you are 
handling ? " growled the detective in citizen's dress to the officious 
policeman. 

" Lemme go ! " yelled Rick at the same time, conscious of that 
vigorous clutch on his collar, to which Ralph and Rob Merry responded 
with a shout to the clerk as they rushed forward, " Stop that ! " 



2l8 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



There they were in a snarl, the two representatives of the law 
^uabbling at the fence, the clerk pulling at Rick who was bawl- 
ing in return, while RoIj JMerry and Ralph were crying to the 
clerk, ''' Stop that ! " It was a very interesting mixture of police, 
and Rick, and clerk, and uncle Nat, and Rob and Ralph. 

" What does all this mean ? " asked uncle Nat. 

" Jones, don't you know me ? " the citizen detective was saying 
-0 his assailant. 

"Oh, that you, Simes?" said Rick's constabulary force in a nior- 




TUE LAXIl's EM), CCIAST (IF L'llKXWALL, E.N 



tified tone. " I was helping a little fellow hunt up his relative, 
a sort of luny who has strayed off." 

" He is right in his mind," whispered Simes. 

" He is here," called out uncle Nat, and he laughed at the 
oddity of the situation. " Gentlemen, there is some mistake." 

" Well, I guess — guess — there is," said the mortified Jones. 



A MUTUAL FIND. 219 

"But — but — don't say anything about it. Don't tell!" and he 
was glad to run off and help extend an alarm of fire oppor- 
tunely given just then. One by one they all laughed over the 
affair of the evening — all but the clerk, who felt that his plans 
for a " fee " had been suddenly interrupted. Rick received what 
he deserved and expected, a good scolding. There was only one 
comforting thing about it. In the course of uncle Nat's reproof, 
he confessed that though Rick's wandering might trouble him, still 
he would follow Dick to the Land's End. 

That was a little solace to know that uncle Nat cared so much 
for Rick as that. And Rick had another solace ; he knew where 
Land's End was. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



LAND OF THE CELESTIALS. 



^TY 



VQrJ^ 



T 




*HE Guild looked leis- 
urely at various Col- 
orado attractions, making an 
excursion into the country, 
and then packed their 
trunks once more for a long 
journey. The packing com- 
pleted, the journey began, 
it was Rick who soon ex- 
claimed : 

" He's off, Rob, Ralph ! " 
Rick was pointing at un- 
cle Nat, who, with his young relatives, occupied luxurious quar- 
ters ill a Pullman eastward bound. 

Uncle Nat, like the rest of Father Adam's numerous family, had 
a peculiarit}-. Missing that beloved element, salt water, he would 
sometimes be found by the Guild in a dreamy reverie, his head 
thrown back and resting against the wall, his hat pulled down 
over his forehead, his eyes half-closed, his hands stowed away in 
his pockets. Several times, he had confessed, '' Oh, I liave been 
dreaming, boys ! The fact is, I sometimes miss the Aiiteloj^e and 
just imagine I am on board the old ship again." 



CHINESE SCENE, 



LAND OF THE CELESTIALS. 223 

The boys charged him with a nap on all such occasions, and 
it looked like it one time when uncle Nat who was "dreaming" 
near a car window, gave a bow with his head and bobbed a nice 
straw hat out of the window. That time uncle Nat at first said, 
" Oh, oh ! I wasn't asleep, boys. Just — just dreaming, you know!' 
But when he realized that a fine manilla was now a quarter of a 
mile back on the track, and "the afternoon express" was every 
second rushing him farther and farther away from it, he acknowledged 
that "' a little drowsiness " had captured hhn. When Rick now said that 
uncle Nat was " off," the boys concluded it must be a nap, but this 
was only a reverie. The captain thought he was on the water, 
crossing the Pacific. Now he was in a fair-weather sea, under 
swollen canvas. Then he dreamed of stormy waters, of a wild, 
wrecking ocean, its surface white with rage. He called at the 
Sandwich Islands, skiinmed the waters of the Suwo Nada — Japan's 
inland sea — and anchored at last in Pearl River, that runs past 
Canton, China. Rick's exclamation aroused uncle Nat and brought 
him from Pearl River to a Pullman, in the United States. The 
consciousness that six sharp, merry eyes were directed towai'd him, 
still more fully transported him from China to America. 

" Ha, ha, boys ! I'm not asleep ! " sang out uncle Nat. " You 
didn't catch me." 

" Came pretty near it, uncle Nat," said Ralph. 

" Oh, no ; only been in China." 

" Rick is interested in China," said Rob. " He is very fond of 
its inhabitants." 

Rob and Ralph laughed at Rick's recent experience in Denver, 
but uncle Nat pretended not to hear. One of uncle Nat's sayings 
ran this way: "When anything is over, that you think may be 
unpleasant to another, don't keep harping on it." He therefore 



224 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



merely remarked, at this time, " Come here, boys, and let's talk 
about Cliiua. Do you remember your visit there, Ralj)!! ? " 

" Oh, yes, air." 

'' Strange people, those Chinese. 1 had got fairly among them 
when you woke " — 

" Ah, uncle Nat ! Wlio was asleep ? " asked Rick. 

" 1 mean when you just gave me a start. Catch an old 




FISHING BY PROXY. 



sailor asleep! Well, I was right among a lot of Chinese fisher- 
men, on Pearl River. Now that is a queer way they do, or it 
seems so to me. There was a bare-legged Cliinaman on a raft, 
with a basket for his fish, with a net in his hands, and yet he 
was fishing by proxy." 



LAND OF THE CELESTIALS. 



225 




A TABLET. 



"With birds?" asked Rick. 

" That's what he was doing. As I looked at him, I thought 
of something else. He stood with his bare feet on the raft, feet 
natural and well-formed, and I said, " What a shame it is that 
they cramp a woman's feet as they do, instead of al- 
lowing them to grow as God meant they, should." 

" How is it the women get such paws as they 
walk on?" asked Rob. 

" How ? Easily told how. They take a baby's foot, 
that is, the foot of a girl baby, and when very young, 
they tie a piece of cloth, perhaps five feet long and 
three inches wide, tightly around the foot, first turning 
the four small toes under the sole. This tight band- 
age is repeated as often as the foot is washed. It is 
a very painful process, and the foot grows in that shape after 
awhile, the instep arching like a ball, and the toes cramped far 
under the foot. Instead of a human foot, you get what has been 
called a goat's foot, and the poor child must toddle all through 
life best as she can. The Tartar women don't murder their feet 
that way ; only the Chinese of the better classes." 

"Why do the Chinese?" asked Rob. 

"Fashion, Rob. It is said that it was an empress's whim, cen- 
turies ago, that set the fashion, and the Chinese are very pig- 
gish in following a custom. That is why they are so slow to 
adopt a new idea." 

" That is why they have pig-tails," remarked Rob. 

" They are not so quick to see a hint as the Japanese," said 
Ralph . 

" They may be as quick to see it, but not to take it. They 
have their good points, though. They are industrious, and they 



226 



ALL ABOARD J- OR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



have great respect for their ancestors. We will sujjpose that a 
father has died. They set up a wooden tablet in liis house, and 
before it they put things they think he might need, or they 
take theui to the grave. To supply him with various necessaries, 
they make paper images of these and set them on fire, fancying, 
I suppose, they will reach the spirit if they go by a road of 
fire. The.se presents are very filial, but cheap also. The Chinese 
think there are not only good, but bad spirits about, and to keep 
the bad spirits in their place, once a year they make a feast to 
them. They erect several poles about twelve feet apart ; and 
twenty feet high, say, they build a platform. On this platform 
they put various goodies for the spirits, baskets of boiled rice 
among them. 

Finally the presents are distributed. How much the spirits get, 
it is not difficult to imagine. The crowd present is generously 

remembered, for various 
acceptable eatables are 
pitched among them, and 
uproariously grabbed." 

" Don't they think a 
good deal of having a nice 
coffin ? " asked Rob. 

" Oh, yes ; and to give 
one to a parent is not 
considered a hint from a 
child that it is time to 
go, but as doing a very 
nice and courteous thing. 
The Chinese say, ' To be happy on earth, one must be born in 
Su-Chow, live in Canton, and die in Lianchau.' What recommends 




llli, Sl'UilT S TABLET. 



LAND OF THE CELESTIALS. 227 

Lian-Choo is the fact that there you get the best wood for coffins. 
They are a very curious people. They are strange in a great 
many ways." 

" Don't you think they would more readily drop some of their 
strange ideas and come under foreign influence if they hadn't had 
reason to dislike the English ? " asked Rob. " The English forced 
opium on China, and that must give the Chinese a poor idea of 
foreign influence." 

" I don't doubt it, while it is true that the Chinese naturally 
are very much opposed to change. English merchants persisted* in 
shipping their opium into China, and the Chi- 
nese were naturally indignant, the drug made 
so much trouble. Finally, it was agreed that 
all the opium in English hands should be 
given up to the Chinese authorities. Over 
twenty thousand chests were thus surrendered, 
and the Chinese fathers did not smoke the 
drug, but destroyed it. They took it to the 
water, and before spilling it, mixed it with 

T,- 'ii, r.1 1-1 11 A SPIRIT'S MEAL. 

water, it is said that many fish were killed 

by the poison. Well, things did not improve. The weather was 
decidedly squally, and in 1840, war broke out between the English 
and Chinese. The English finally won, and compelled China to 
hand over the island of Hong-Kong, open several other ports, and 
give them a long purse, filled with hard cash. At the final 
settlement, China agreed to pay over twenty-one million dol- 
lars. 

" Of course she kept on swallowing the poison that England would 
cram into her throat. What wonder if the Chinese have labelled 
outsiders ' foreio;n devils ? ' No wonder." 




228 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

" What they needed in China," said Rick, who was an ardent 
temperance champion, " was a good strong dose of prohibition, 
and England ought to have granted it when China wanted it." 

" Tliat is it," replied uncle Nat, " and it is needed in some 
other places besides China." 





MOONLIGHT ON THE SUSQUEHANNA. 



CHAPTER XV. 



IN THE KEYSTONE STATE. 



I EON, iron, iron! 
How it has been melted, and pounded, and rolled, and twisted, 
and worked into every shape ! Go among old Assj'rian relics and 
we find saws, knives, and other tools, and some are not very 
unlike those the carpenter of to-day handles. Look at Egyptian 
stone-work, and there, older than a thousand years before Christ, 
is a kind of bellows which it is thought may have blown into a 
more intense heat the coals on the forge. Homer speaks of the 
shaping of iron. Aristotle (born 384 B. c.) tells of a species of 
steely iron. Our British ancestors knew about iron probably before 
the Roman irruption. And so around the world, for centuries, 
men have been handling that tough, hard, modest-colored ore we 
know as iron. 

229 



230 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



The Guild was now in Ohio, moving eastward. 

" We must see, boys, how iron is worked up," said uncle Nat. 
" When I was a little shaver, some folks said cotton was king. 
But now the country has some other kings. There are the 




A GOOD CHANCE TO BEST. 



corn and wheat king, the shoe king, the coal king, and you and I 
must throw up caps for iron king. We will see Ironton, in Ohio, 
and Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania." 

At these two places of flame and smoke, of coal and iron, they 
wandered among the furnaces, visiting them by day, and then 
watching them by night, when the white molten metal came 



IN THE KEYSTONE STATE. 



231 



running out, sputtering and sizzling, shooting up in showers of 
sparks, or flowing down in burning, dazzling streams. 

"Strange," said uncle Nat, kicking at a bar of iron with his 
foot, " how the quiet shining of the sun will affect that ! The 
statement is that half an hour of sunshine will be felt more power- 
fully by the tubes of the famous Britannia Bridge, over the Menai 
Straits than the most powerful winds or the heaviest loads." 

If uncle Nat had been moralizing at the close of a speech or 
an article, he might have added that the above fact illustrated 
the influence of a right character, quietly, steadily doing its daily 




NIGHT-SCENE AT A FURNACE ROLLING MILL. 

work, more effective in its influence than some conspicuous and 
intermittent goodness. But uncle Nat, as Rick said, '.<■ didn't talk so 
much about those things as he lived them out, and we all know 
where uncle Nat stands every time." 

They continued their journey eastward at easy stages, now and 
then stopping to enjoy various water or mountain views. One 
enjoyable river they found to be the Susquehanna and its branches. 



232 



ALL ABOARD I- OR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



It noisily gathers up streams in Nev; Yor!: and Pennsylvania, 
carrying its waters down into Maryland, and then this bucket of 
crystal from fur-away mountain and valley is poured out at 
Havre de Grace. Whether it plays with tlie moonbeams at night, 
rocking them in the cradle of its ripples, or in the sunshine, flows 




THE SUSCilEUANNA 1-KOM CAIAUI^SA. 



in broadening surfaces of silver, the Susquehanna is always beau- 
tiful. Rare corners of scenery do its tributary streams make in 
their windings, like the Tioga, Catawissa, Juniata, and others. 

One evening, after a boat-ride on the Susquehanna, the Antelope 
Guild, in a room at a Catawissa hotel, talked about the Indians. 
They spoke of savage customs, of their dwellings, of their war- 
dances, and of the pipe of peace. 

" Not so pleasant to be out in the woods," suggested Rick, " and 
have some of those fellers come all of a sudden behind you, say 
when you were getting your supper at a camp-fii'e." 

" No ; good many knew in those days how an Indian could 
surprise the white man," said uncle Nat. 



IN THE KEYSTONE STATE. 



233 




J^!^ ^!^^P^!^S^ '- 



PIPE OF PEACE. 



The conversation turned upon the subject of towns and villages 
that were attacked by Indians. Wyoming was mentioned. Sad was 
its fate. Down through the 
valley of Wyoming flows the 
Susquehanna. The valley is 
twenty miles long, and has a 
width averaging three miles. 
Lofty hills are the western 
and eastern walls of this riv- 
er-garden, which hides in the 
loamy beds of soil along the 
Susquehanna the secret of its 
fertility. 

It Avas in the year 1778. 
The fires of the Revolutionary War still were burning. The Brit- 
ish had formed an alliance with the Indians known as the Six 

Nations, and the settlers in 
"^"ir- >.^ ^'^® valley of Wyoming did 

not forget this. Ten stout 
forts were built by the set- 
tlers in anticipation of the hour 
of invasion. It was summer. 
The birds in the valley sang 
sweetly ; as if no war-whoop 
from a dusky savage could 
possibly be a response. The 
farmer, looking up from the 
rich lands by the Susquehan- 
na, saw the sun go down peacefully, but knew that the harmless 
fire in the west might be anticipative of the conflagration that 




INDIAN SURPRISE. 



234 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



would ravage his house and barns. Tlie red man's war-whoop 
was sounded at last in beautiful Wyoming, and his torch kindled 
into flames the accumulations of the industrious settlers. It was 
a mistaken, as well as a cruel policy, that ever induced white men 
to employ savages as allies. 

The British flag was raised among the Seneca Indians, and they 
were persuaded to accompany a force of Tory Rangers on a raid 
into Pennsylvania. It was the last day in June, and through 
the shadowing forests bordering Wyoming, stole this hostile, niur- 




MOUTH OF THE CATAWISSA. 



derous band. The first of July two of the ten forts built by the 
settlers, surrendered. The news of the invasion went quickly through 
that peaceful valley of the summer, startling the heart of the 
mother rocking the cradle of her helpless babe, and bringing back 
to his lonely farmhouse the father who had started for field or 
pasture. The men were in anxious, hurried consultation about the 
future. Although vastly inferior in numbers, they resolved to attack 
the invaders. It was the third of July, and from the homes of 
Wyoming, a hastily gathered company, estimated to number four 
hundred, went out to die for their households. Led by Colonel 



IN THE KEYSTONE STATE. 



235 



Zebulon Butler, they marched up the valley. It is said the enemy 
feigned a retreat. It could only have been to lure the settlers 
into a death-trap. But whether a feigned or forced retreat, the 
men of Wyoming were soon surrounded, and what a hellish 
enclosure it was! The Indians knew no mercy, and in less than 
thirty minutes their toma- 
hawks had mutilated two 
hundred and twenty-five 
victims. Only five of their 
captives did the Tory Rang- 
ers permit to live. The re- 
sults of this bloody slaugh- 
ter can be anticipated. The 
remaining forts of the set- 
tiers surrendered, and were 
fired. And then the torch 
was waved everywhere, the 
flames of burnino; buildinss 
lighting up the valley at 
night, their glare bringing 
no welcome guidance to 
the helpless fugitives fleeing 
from the valley. Wyoming 
was deserted The beautiful valley had become a cruel tomb. In 
a great swamp, that the Indians called Towamnesing, and which 
the Moravian missionary, Count Zinzendorf, named St. Anthony's 
Wilderness, many women and children from Wyoming perislied. It 
is no wonder that fugitives from the massacre called it the Shades 
of Death. 

Uncle Nat took the Guild through the Wyoming Valley, along 




INDIAN ATTACK. 



236 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

whose length such a hum of industry is now heard. Tliey visited 
Wilkesbarre. 

" Here, boys," said uncle Nat, " you can have your choice, go 
about and enjoy fine scenery by daylight, or go under and see the 
coal fields l)y lamplight. Here is a coal field in this neiglibor- 
hood that, I am told, stretches off until it covers seventy-seven 
square miles, and they think over two billion of tons of coal 
are here. The Wyoming veins are rich, and average a thickness 
of eighty feet in the aggregate. Think of owning an acre and 
getting out eighty thousand tons of coal ! " 

The Guild visited other points in Wyoming Valley, and Ashley 
among them. They diverged to Solomon's Gap, and there uncle 
Nat said, " Boys, having struck the famous coal region, we will 
take a hasty run across it." They visited Scranton, Carbondale, 
and Mauch Chunk. 

" Such a queer place ! " said Ralph. And Mauch Chunk is a 
singular place, its buildings crowding into a ravine which has 
depth and not breadth, and above it ai'e the hills which 
seem to be looking down in a constant frown on the town for 
venturing into their neighborhood. Here Rob Merry read a paper 
on coal. 

" The Lehigh River Valley in which we are, is a famous coal 
district, but what a hard time hard coal had in getting into the 
good graces of people ! It is said that a hunter, about ninety 
years ago, was out hunting one day. Where towns now are, 
were only forests then, and the ponds and streams were lonely 
places, their visitors being stags challenging one another. This hun- 
ter did not take home any stag that day, but he did find some 
strange black stones. He picked them up, and wondered what 
they were. He carried them away, these queer pieces of black 




NOT THEN AS NOW. 



IN THE KEYSTONE STATE. 



239 



stones. By and by they were sent to Philadelphia and experts 
looked at thera. But what did they amount to ? They were 
pronounced to be stone coal, only this, and it was besides so 
hard, that of course it would not burn. However, some people 
were interested, and a company went to work on Sharp Mount- 
ain — close by us — owning there twelve thousand acres of land. 




INDIAN DANCE. 



There were two difficulties, though, in the way of the success of 
these tough old black rocks as fuel. People did not want the hard 
stuff, and if they did, it was very hard to get it to them. 
Why, they would hire mechanics to use it, and when they tried 
to use the new fuel at the Philadelphia water-works, the report 
was that it put out the fires ! They took what was left of the 
useless rock, broke it up and shoveled it out on the sidewalks. 
It was impossible to destroy it, for fire would not trouble it, and 



240 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

certainly nothing else could. It was hoped that it would behave 
itself out-doors and make a good walk for people on foot. Over 
twenty years after the finding of the stone coal, it only needed 
three hundred and sixty-five tons to fill all the coal bins of 
Philadelphia for a year's supply. Then they had a hard time 
getting this hard coal to market. They would send the coal 
down the river to Philadelphia, in arks of wood. When they 
reached the city, they would be broken up for lumber, but their 
iron work would be lugged back by the boatmen who went on 
foot. Then into new arks would the old iron be built, and down 
the river these relics of Noah would be floated. That style was 
kept up year after year. As late as 1841, only forty-one thou- 
sand tons of coal went to Philadelphia. Then they had a hard 
time on the very first division of the route to a market, 
getting the coal away from the mines. They first carted it over 
the hills. That was a slow process. Then they built a railroad, 
and made the mules serve as locomotives. The funny thing was 
that the locomotives had a ride in their own trains one way. 
The mules would ride down with the coal, but were expected t® 
pull the empty cars up hill again. All these days of hard luck 
passed away. Improvements were made in every direction. Peo- 
ple now are very glad to have this stone-coal, or anthracite, and 
it takes vast quantities to satisfy the appetite of our stoves and 
furnaces. It is said that the coal bed on Mauch Chunk Moun- 
tain is over fifty feet thick, and that there is nothing thicker or 
harder. At one time it was, and may be now, without a known 
rival." 

The Guild went down the valley of tlie Lehigh to that of the 
great river it joins, the Delaware. 

" We shall find that this Delaware River cuts boldly across our 




SOLOMON'S GAP AND ASHLEY IN THE DISTANCE. 



IN THE KEYSTONE STATE. 243 

old friend the Appalachian mountain-system," said uncle Nat, good- 
naturedly. 

" At the Delaware Water Gap ? " asked Rob. 

" Yes ; the Kittatiny Mountains are there. Mount Tammany is 



"oh, for a tentI" exclaimed this eager camper. 

on the New Jersey side of the Gap, and Mount Minsi on the 
Pennsylvania." 

" That sounds natural, Tammany," said Ralph. " It makes you 
think of that New York society." 



244 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

" Tammany was an old Delaware Indian, supposed to be very 
wise and very good. May day was his festival, and societies named 
after the old wigwam king, celebrated the day." 

Varied was the Delaware River scenery, with its frowning, over- 
hanging crags, its forests, its nooks of emerald verdure along the 
shores, its outlook on still homes in the country or bus}' city 
streets. Rob admired the forest scenery. He declared that only 
one thing was wanting in the emerald depths of the woods where 
echoed the song of some forest birds, or by the banks of a lily-starred 
pond that at niglit carried in its bosom the reflected forms of 
fairer flowers in the gardens of the sky. 

" Oh, for a tent ! " exclaimed this eager camper. 

The Guild tracked the flow of the bright, strong Delaware 
" purposely," as uncle Nat said. He wanted to lead them to a 
neighborhood made famous in Revolutionary annals. Its story we 
will give. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
HOW THEY CROSSED TOE DELAWARE. 

"T^ECEMBER, 1776, what a dark month in the history of the 
-■-^ American struggle for Independence ! Snow was on the 
hilltops, and snow was on the hearts of the Americans. It was 
a cold, dark, wintry hour for our country's cause. Our army 
had not been successful in New York, and it had been forced to 
retreat into New Jersey. Washington was our General-in-chief, but 
he could not do everything. Like a wave rolling shoreward to 
bury the sands and the rocks, the British power was sweeping 
on, threatening to carry everything in New Jersey before it, and 
menacing Philadelphia. British officers sent word home from New 
York, "Lord Cornwallis is carrying all right before him in the 
Jerseys. It is impossible l^ut that peace nwist soon be the con- 
sequence of our success." There were American troops also whose 
time of service had almost expired. The British General Howe 
confidently expected that the American army would pass away 
like a summer brook when their term of enlistment expired. 
Leaving a force of Hessians and Highlanders in New Jersey, to 
hold tiie line from Trenton to Burlington, he returned to New 
York, where he found exceedingly comfortabb winter quarters. 

At Ti-enton. were Hessian troops commanded by one Rail. 
Was there snow on the hearts of the Americans ? Winter had 
not chilled everybody. The interest of Sam Adams of Massachusetts 

245 



246 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



was ardent. He said at this time, '' I do not regret the part I 
have taken in a cause so just and interesting to nianlvind. The 
people of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys seem determined to give 
it up, but I trust that my dear New England Avill maintain it 
at the expense of everything dear to them in this life ; they 
know how to prize their liberties." There was another heart 
where the sunshine of faith in God and humanity melted away 
any snow of despondency that might fall, and it was the heart 
of Washington. Although on the twelfth of December he spoke 




WAlriNll FOK A PASSENGER. 



of the array in this style, '' Our little handful is daily decreas- 
ing by sickness and other causes," he did not despair. The 
twenty-fourth of December, he said, " The last of this month, I 
shall be left with from fourteen to fifteen hundred effective men 
in the whole. This handful, and such militia as may choose to 
join me, will then compose our array." Notwithstanding these num- 
bers, the day before Washington had penned these words : " VIC- 
TORY OR DEATH!" 

That was significant. It was the watchword for an attack 



HO IV THEY CROSSED THE DELAWARE. 



247 



planned upon the British. The latter heard of it, but it was 
treated with little respect. The idea that Washington was corning — 
coming, too, across the ice-strown Delaware ! " Why, the running 
ice would make the return desperate or impracticable," said the 
British commander in New Jersey. Then he wrote, " Besides, 
Washington's men have neither shoes nor stockings, nor blankets ; 
are almost naked, and dy- 
ing of cold and want of 
food." But one wintry af- 
ternoon, the twenty-fifth of 
December, those barefoot 
men who loved liberty bet- 
ter than they loved shoes 
and stockings, marched out 
from winter quarters. It 
was Christmas day, but I 
imagine there had been no 
picking of turkey -bones, 
and if there were, it must 
have been an early dinner, 
for all preparations for a forward movement were made in season 
to march by three. Did the drums beat, or did they steal away 
in silence ? What matter ? Their hearts were beatina; to the music 
of that sentiment, "■ Victory or Death ! " 

The army had been divided, as the movement was to be a 
divided one, and with Washington went twenty-four hundred men 
of the American army. The mark at which he aimed was Trenton, 
where Rail and his Hessian troops were. By three, the Ameri- 
cans were off. Each soldier took his forty rounds and three days' 
rations. With the army, rumbled along eighteen pieces of artillery. 




TOET UNPOPULARITY. 



248 ALL ABOALW LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

As the sliadovvs fell across the forests, the Delaware was reached. 
The waters swept onward in a strong, chilling current, checkered 
with masses of drifting ice. The soldiers gathered on the banks. 
It could have been no easy march that afternoon. There were 
soldiers who walked with broken shoes, and broken feet also, for 
the snow was stained red as the sunset with the l:)lood that oozed 
out. Diflicult as the march may have been, the passage of the 
river was also to be a difficult one. 

" Who will lead us on ? " Washington asked on the icy shores, 
where were chafing the boats gathered for the passage. The brave, 
plucky seamen of Marblehead came forward and volunteered their 
services. The boats began to push off. It was a sharp, arctic 
night. The flow of the river was impetuous. The ice went drift- 
ing by in larger fleets. The wind protested against this brave 
attempt of the soldiers, and daslied in furious gusts upon the 
rocking boats. The Delaware was no calm river in the summer 
night, but a wintry, turbulent flow. We seem to see Washington 
in his boat, his men huddled about him. One lifts the gathered, 
yet fluttering folds of the flag. Others pull with then- oars, or 
push away the white, jagged masses of ice that retard the passage 
of the army. Some are there, folding closely around them the 
thin overcoats through which the wind Mioots its keen arrows. 
Amid all, rises the form of the leader, looking ahead with keen, 
anxious eye to the shore they are approaching. He may be won- 
dering if any enemy would be there to oppose the landing. The 
only enemy Avas the wind. That raved and cried aloud, and. in 
addition, at eleven o'clock, snow fell. It was three o'clock, the 
morning of the twenty-sixth, befoi'e men and artilloiy had crossed. 
Four o'clock came by the time that the Americans had formed 
their colunms for the march to Trenton, nine miles awav. At 



HOJV THEY CROSSED THE DELAWARE. 



249 



that hour, a northeast storm liad mustered its forces of hail, sleet 
and gust, and hurled all against the patient columns of Liberty. 
Nine miles to Trenton over a hard road, nine miles too, of 
northeast storm ! 

One of Washington's officers, Sullivan, reported that the arms 



1 ^^^wH^'"^' J' "< 







NO CALM KIVEK IN THE Sl'MMHK NIGHT." 



of his men were wet. " Then tell your general," was his message 
by an aid, " to use the bayonet, and penetrate into the town ; 
for the town must be taken, and 1 am resolved to take it." 



2SO 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



When this message was carried to General Sullivan, it is said 
that the soldiers heard its delivery, and so aroused was their 
enthusiasm that they did not delay for the transmission of an 
order, but grimly fixed their bayonets — those that chanced to be 
rich enough to own both gun and bayonet. On to Trenton ! 
"VICTORY OR DEATH!" Tiie thin gray light of a stormy 
morning was now making its way tlu'ough the clouds. 

The tempest rudely Happed its cold wings in tlie faces of 




■WASHINGTON CRUSSING TIIE I)ELA\\ AI;1 



the men who chilled and weary had forced their way ahead in that 
winter night-march of fifteen miles. But where were the Hessians ? 
The twenty-fifth they had been startled by a sliglit attack of a re- 
connoitering party, but through the night, their sentinels had paced 
their rounds, bringing in no report of any enemy out in the 
storm. All was quiet along the British lines at Trenton. But 



HOW THEY CROSSED THE DELAWARE. 251 

looking up in the morning, through the charge of the hail and 
the wind, an outer picket saw the Continentals charging also ! 

Hurrah ! On they moved with shouts, brave Stark of New 
Hampshire leading. A company that came out of the barracks 
to support the guard, saw the steel lines of this unexpected 
northeast storm of fixed bayonets, and retreated in haste. Quickly 
Trenton town was in confusion, the Americans charging along its 
frozen streets. The Hessians who had been alarmed the day 
before, as already told, by that slight attack of the American recon- 
noitring party had recovered their equanimity. It is said that 
their commander continued his customary " revels " into the night, 
and all the while the men with holes in their shoes were mov- 
ing on Trenton. And there they were, the storm clashing against 
their cold bayonets ! 

Rail, the officer in command at Trenton, tried to recover the 
ground that had been lost. I see him riding here and there, 
rallying his men that unlucky, dreary morning, only retreating to 
an orchard east of the town. Unwilling to yield up the American 
plunder they had accumulated in the town, the Hessians filed 
past the gaunt, leaflets trees, and rushed on Trenton again. But 
there advanced once more the men with holes in their shoes, charg- 
ing furiously through the cold storm, and, driving the Hessians still 
farther away, forcing them into a position where they became 
demoralized, confused, and a prey ! As a body, they were bagged 
as nicely as ever any bird brought down by a sportsman's 
gun. 

A hundred and sixty-two escaped, but nine hundred and forty- 
six were taken prisoners. The Americans did not lose a man, 
and besides the prisoners, captured all the brigade standai'ds, six 
pieces of artillery, and twelve hundred muskets. Santa Glaus was 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 




HOW, WAVING HIS SWORD, CAI'TAIN HUH MKlIla' WuLI.U HAVE LLL) IHEM ON. 



rather late in making his Christmas presents along the line of 
the Delaware, but when he did come, he certainly rememliered 
the Americans in a very generous style. The truth is, that Santa 
Clans helps those who help themselves. 

This dash of the Continentals on Trenton had a marked influ- 
ence on America and England. " All our hopes," said Lord George 
Germain, "were blasted by the unhappy affair at Trenton." On 
the other hand, Bancroft says that the praeses of the Pennsyl- 
vania German Lutherans wrote : " But the Lord of hosts heard 
the cries of the distressed, and sent an angel for their deliver- 
ance." 

In the same direction Washington gratefully looked in acknowl- 



HO IV THEY CROSSED THE DELAWARE. 253 

edging the source of this help to the American cause. " Sir, the 
Hessians have surrendered," was the report brought to him. And 
it is said that the brave commander looked to Heaven with grateful 
eyes, joining his hands in the attitude of thanksgiving. The men 
that could pray as well as march, carried the country through the 
perils of the Revolution. 

The Guild, by the side of the blue waters of the Delaware, went 
over the details of this story. The boys' patriotism became very 
fervid. Ralph thought how patiently he would have marched, had 
he been in Washington's army. Gallantly waving a very bright 
sword, Captain Rob Merry dreamed how he would have led the 
Americans on. Rick was very glad to find a very small hole in the 
toe of his shoe, as it was a memorial of the days when perhaps 
his own great grandfather walked behind Washington, his shoes very 
much the worse for wear. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



ON TO BOSTON. 




POT-HOOKS AXD TRAMMELS. 



T 11 7E are now in the good old land 
' ' of pot-hooks and trammels," 
said uncle Nat to the Guild, who 
had left a Sound steamer and were 
comfortably seated in an express train 
bound for Boston. 

"You don't see them nowadays," 
said Ralph. 

" No ; but New England always 
suggests them, and Boston could fur- 
nish them from its relics. There, 
that house looks as if it might have them now, somewhere along 
the line of that big chimney whose top you see above the roof." 
The boys eagerly looked out of the window at a weather-beaten 
old structure, whose hasty picture was framed by the car-window. 
" And that gate near the house, where the rails between the 
two posts just about touched, made you think of the stocks," 
said Rob. 

" Stocks ? " inquired Rick. 

" Why, yes ; you have seen pictures of them, where a prisoner 
was required to put his hands or feet, perhaps all of them, tln-ough 
holes in a movable board in a framework, and there he was 

254 



ON TO BOSTON. 



255 



obliged to stay until the constable let him out," said uncle Nat. 

" Oh, yes ; now I remember a picture of one, where a poor tramp 
is on one side of the stocks, looking gloomy enough, with his 
feet caught that way, and on the other side is his dog, looking 
sheepish enough at his master's bad fix." 

" In England, once, every parish had its stocks. Then there was 
the pillory, a stout plank like a 
sign-board, being set on the top 
of a pole, and this pole was on 
a platform. In the sign-board 
were holes for the neck and 
wrists. You can imagine how a 
man must have looked, his head 
and hands held that way." 

" I saw a picture of Titus 




PRISONERS IN STOCKS. 



Gates," said Ralph, " and his head was put through the pillory, 
and his hands too, and there he stood, this old English character, 
in the midst of a great crowd that didn't look friendly one bit." 

" If a man was popular," remarked uncle Nat, " the pillory did 
not hurt him. His friends would feed him and shade from the 
sun his face, but if unpopular, he became a mark at which were 
sent various disagreeable objects. The pillory and the stocks 
were brought to this country, and at the time of the Revolution, 
were in use here." 

From the windows of the train the Guild looked out on a strip 
of water where some men were fishing from a boat. 

"There's where we can get capital sailors for our navy," said 
uncle Nat. " Last summer I saw some boys down on the sea- 
shore handling fish they had caught, and I thought they would 
make splendid mates and captains some day." 



256 



ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 



Past strips of emerald meadow, past beds of blossoming 
plants in a garden, past a thrifty manufacturing village or a 
lonely farmhouse, the express for Boston rattled on. 

"Have you got that paper?" uncle Nat asked of Rick. 

" What paper, uncle ? " 

" About the railroads. We shall soon suspend railroad travel for 




THE COMING JACKS OF Orii NAVY. 



a little while, and it will be a good time to finish off by reading 
those facts about railroads I found for you." 

" I am ready," said Rick, and he began to read : 
" There are, in the United States, over sixteen hundred rail- 
road companies, and they run one hundred and fifteen thousand 
miles of main line. Counting in what they call sidings, there 
are one hundred and thirty tliousand miles of track. We get 





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ON TO BOSTON. 259 

an idea of what has been done m fifty years, from this fact, that 
up to 1833, all the miles of railroad would not have been enough 
to make side tracks for one of our smaller trunk lines. It 
takes twenty-two thousand locomotives to pull seven hundred 
thousand cars of every kind, freight and others. According to 
the last census, these roads employed over four hundred thousand 
men of all grades, and it took about two hundred million dollars 
to pay them off for one year. They represent — not the hands, 
but the roads — over five billion of dollars worth of property : 
about three times as much as our national debt. They carried 
over two hundred and sixty million of passengers in 1882, and 
moved about forty billion of tons of goods. There, now I will 
take a breath, for isn't that enough ? " 

Uncle Nat laughed, and said, "But you left out one thing." 

"What was that?" 

" About the Pennsylvania Railroad, which does more business 
than any other road in the country. It has in all, four thousand 
miles of main track — and — and — and " — 

" Stuck, uncle Nat ! You'll have to go down to the foot of 
the class," said Rick. " Let me tell, for I have the figures on 
the other side of my paper. It has twelve hundred locomotives, 
thirty-one thousand passenger cars, and thirty thousand freight 
cars, earning in all about eighty million of dollars, m 1882, its 
expenses being fifty million. It's a big road." 

" Don't you think, uncle Nat, sometime they will travel in the 
air ? " inquired Ralph. 

"Yes, I do." 

"How?" 

" That I give up. A late invention has been the storing of elec- 
tricity in a cell that can be carried about. One, weighing about a 



26o ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

hundred pounds, was sent from Paris to Sir William Thompson, an elec- 
trician, and it had power to lift a million pounds one foot high. It 
is called the Faure cell, after its inventor. A small boat was pro- 
pelled by two cells up and down the Seine, carrying passengers. 
The inventor hoped to drive a balloon through the air by means 
of this cell, in which electric power had been stored. If it can 
only be done, what a nice thing it will be for the Antelope Guild ! " 

The train was now nearing Boston, thundi'ring through Brain- 
tree, Quincy, and Dorchester. 

" There's old Dorchester Heights, though they are now in South 
Boston, the name of the neighborhood having been changed," 
called out uncle Nat. " See that hill over there, up which the 
houses mount like stairs, and on top is a leafy crown, a flag- 
staff in the centre. That is the point our troops occupied in 
March, 1776, when Boston was held by the British, and wasn't 
a good work done there ? " 

'• I think so, uncle Nat," said Rick, who knew the story well. 

For the sake of all the 3'oung people, tlie story shall have an 
insertion here. 

It was March, 1776. Cold weather, thougli not severe, still 
lingered in the blue skies and on the frostv hills of New Ensj;- 
land. Within Boston, was the British army. In the harbor was the 
British fleet, and between the fleet and the sea was a crystal road- 
way that the Americans might covet, but could not obtain. Though 
the American army was posted about town, their guns did not 
control it or the watery avenue leading to it. There was the 
liigh ground, though, lying in a southerly direction from the town, 
called Dorchester Heights, which overlooked also the harbor. If 
Washington could point his guns at the enemy from that elevated 
point, make Dorchester Heights the carriage on which he mounted 



ON TO boston: 



261 



his cannon, and then blaze away, the Britisli army and the British 
fleet might be ghid to run away from Boston. Washington said 
to himself, " I'll try to occupy Dorchester Heights." 

To mislead the enemy, there was a heavy night-cannonade kept 
up by the Americans, the guns all banging away in the direction 
of Boston. Through the two nights previous to the occupation of 
the Heights, the Ameri- 
cans were bombarding 
the town. The niglit be- 
fore the fifth of March, 
on both sides the firing 
was so hard and hot 
that from seven till day- 
break, it was one con- 
stant thunder about the 
town. \yashin!j;ton's can- 
non and Washington's men were both in active service, the former 
roaring and the latter marching. Ti'oops were dispatched to occupy 
different points, and to General Thomas was given the command of 
a working party of twelve hundred, who proceeded to the elevated 
ground Washington had coveted for his redoubts. 

The frost was still too deep in the earth to permit any excava- 
tions for trenches or any accumulation into ramparts, but there 
were Yankee farmers in the neighborhood, and there were Yankee 
barns, and over tln-ee hundred Yankee carts came filled with bundles 
of screwed hay, for works on Dorchester Neck, and with various 
materials for the redoubts on the Heights. The moon hung its 
':ound, silvery disk in the March sky, its peacefully falling light in 
strange contrast with the smoky clouds of war arising from the guns 
incessantly thundering away. Tlie Americans earnestly worked on 




HANCOCK II 



l'.OSTO?f, REVOLUTIONABY DATS. 



262 ALL ABOARD I- OR TUB LAKES AXB iMOL.XTALXS. 

the Heights. Trees growing in neighboring orchards were cut down. 
Tliese were built into an abattis and bristled at the foot of the 
ridge. Strong, sturdy redoubts were piled u]i. 

The Americans had prepai'ed barrels packed willi earth and stones, 
and these were intended as a welcome for the enemy, should the}' 
conclude to assault the works. Very handy to roll down un an 
approaching and assailing force ! The works at la.st were finished. 
The sharp light of the morning Ihished out of the east, paling 
til J moon to a white, fleecy cloud-tuft in the sky, and there on 
old Dorchester Heights, ragged, but rugged, frowning, scowling, 
strong, were — " What ? " must have thought the British, looking 
over from the town through their glasses, and looking up from 
the decks of their ships in the harbor! '"We must go, or we 
nuist take the works the saucy Yankees have thrown up," must 
have been the thought in the mind of the enemy. 

Twenty-four hundred men were marched to the water and 
embarked in transports under the connnand of Lord Percy, who 
was directed to storm and carrv the works on Dorchester Heights. 
The Americans were glad to see them embark, and behind the 
grim Heights was a strong resolve that the works should not be 
taken. The transports moved down the harbor, watched by the 
British fleet, and the Yankees clustered on the Heights like 
black bunches of bees in swarming time. But the swarm on the 
Heights was in no danger. The transports went jiast them to a 
British fortification in the harbor. Lord Percy purposing to assault 
the Heights after dark. A rough wind, though, blew in the after- 
noon, growing to a violence in the night that sent two or three 
vessels ashore. In the morning, the rain shattered down furiously. 
The attack was delayed, and was never made, the British de- 
ciding to go to a more congenial atmosphere ! They began to 



O^V TO BOSTON. 



263 



embark at a very etirly hour one nioruiiig, and a long line of 
ships moved slowly towards the sea, retreating beyond the harbor's 
mouth, receding, dwindling, the while sails melting like little 
patches of foam into the ocean. The British had been " caught 
napping." No cat ever surprised more abruptly a troop of mice 
at play. Washington in this case was the cat, and the British 
mice could only run away. 



n^pi: 



I ^m^ 



%:m m 




THE BRITISH MICE COULD ONLY RUN ATT AY. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



A SALT-WATER SUEPEISE. 




BOUND FOR BOSTON. 



I HAVE got a surprise for 
you, boys," said uncle 
Nat an hour after tlieir ar- 
rival in Boston. " We were 
going out to Concord in the 
next train, you know, but 1 
have been down on State 
street, and learned s o m e - 
thing that makes me want 
to delay going to Concord." Then Uncle Nat smiled. 
" A surprise ? " inquired Rob. 
" Yes, a salt-water surprise." 
" Not a fresh-water one ? " 

" No, no ! We will go down to Lewis Wharf." 
It was a mystery to the Guild, this salt-water surprise, but 
uncle Nat did not let any light fall on this dim and misty sulj- 
ject. At the wharf, they stepped on board a tug that at once 
began to splash the water Avith its iron fins and was ([uickly 
darting down the harbor. It was a bright, breezy da}-. The 
sun was shooting down its golden arrows, and all the little waves 
were so busy catching them up on their cr3'stal shields, sending 
thein back broken and jagged, but still golden. It was a morn- 

264 



A SALT-WATER SURPRISE. 265 

ing tliat suggested life, — movement. There was motion to the 
wind, tlie water, and the nimble tug. The spirit of the day 
was contagious. The boys felt it. Uncle Nat caught it at once. 
There he stood on the deck of the tug, his face turned toward 
the open sea, his brown eyes flashing out a Are that responded 
to tlie animated play of the sunshine across the water. 

" Well, boys, this is good ! I like to be on the move," ex- 
claimed uncle Nat. "Everything seems to be going this morning." 

"Everything except the islands," added Rick. 

" Well, those are good to tie up to. It won't do to have 
everything on the go." 

" Where did islands come from ? " asked Rick abruptly. 

" Come from ? " replied uncle Nat. 

"Ask that comet we talked about at Concord," suggested Rob. 

" That comet, ha, ha ! Where did islands come from ? Why, 
the waters running out from the coast, carried out some of their 
dirt. The water is constantly at work upon them, taking dirt 
from them also. There is Nix's Mate. See it ! " 

" Where, where ? " asked the boys. 

" Over there at the right, where that stone beacon is. There 
is a shoal around that, but once it was quite a good-sized 
island, and they used to pay off pirates there for the mischief 
they did. The story runs that the mate of a Captain Nix was 
charged with the murder of his master. He was taken to that island 
there to forfeit his life. He declared that he was not guilty of 
the crime, and told the hangman when about to die, that in 
proof of his innocence, the i.sland would be washed away. There 
is certainly little of it left now." 

" Some islands are thrown up by volcanoes," said Rob. " The 
Azores are volcanic." 



266 



ALL ABOARD LOR TLLE LAKES AMD AIOUNTALXS. 



" Yes ; one put its head out of the sea about seventy years 

ago, and the coinuiandor of a British war-ship saw the oper- 
ation." 

" Rock-ishmds, that tlie waves tliunder at and dun't trouble in 




WHITE ISLAND HEAD, ISLES OF SHOALS. 



the least," said Ralph, " always seem more interesting than these 
earth-islands that the water keeps washing away. Do you remem- 
ber the Isles of Shoals, off Portsmouth, N. H., where we went 
cnce. Rick ? " 

"Guess I do!" 

" Those rocks looked solid enough, and didn't the waves march 
up their sides in a grand way ! They had to march down again, 
though." 



A SALT-WATER SURPRISE. 



267 



The tug boat was now nearing the mouth of Boston Harbor. 
Uncle Nat had ceased to take jjai't in tlie conversation, and was 
silently looking oii' toward the wide, stretching, sunlit sea. He 
was humming the chorus of a sailor-song, " Oh, poor Reuben 
Ranzo, Ranzo, boys, Ranzo ! " Suddenly his face broke into a 
smile. He stopped singing and shouted, '"Hurrah! Hurrah!" 

Then he swung his hat excitedly. 




OFF BOSTON' HARBOK. NO. 1. SENDING A BOAT. 

"What is the matter?" thought Ralph. "Uncle Nat gone mad?" 
" There she is, boys, there she is ! " cried uncle Nat, swinging 

his hat still more enthusiastically. 

At the left of their course, quietly riding at anchor, was a ship, 

and " How natural it looks ! " thought Rick. 



268 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

"Oh, I know now! The Anlduyc! The Antdopc ! " he shouted, 
and besj;an to luirrah. 

The enthusiasm became general. Four boys, uncle Nat being a 
little older and larger tlian the other youthful members of the 
Guild, were now hurrahing. The captain of the tug looked out 
from the cosey little pilot-house, the engineer stuck his head out from 
the door of his quarters, the '' hands " glanced up from their 
work, all grinning at the enthusiasm of this jolly, rolicking Guild. 

" This is your salt water surprise ? " asked Ralph. 

" Certainly," said uncle Nat. " Now, cap'n," he added, turning 
to the occupant of the pilot-house, " put us alongside of that craft, 
clap on your hawser, and whisk about for Boston in less than 
no time." 

" Aye, aye ! " was the response. 

And in a very little while, if not " less than no time," the 
tug had been laid aside the Antelope, that hawser had been 
" clapped on," and the Antelope, thus triumphantly led, was on 
her way to Lewis Wharf, taking the Guild with her. 

"Isn't this good, boys?" said uncle Nat, who had been talking 
with the head officer, but now turned to chat with the Guild. 
" Come into the cabin ! Why, where are you ? " 

" Come ! " They had already gone, all of them scattering to 
different places. 

Ralph was now in the after-cabin, looking about. " How natural ! " 
he thought. There was the lamp overhead, swinging from the sky- 
light, and below was the carpet he used to admire, its scarlet and 
gold shades somewhat faded now. There were the marble-top table 
and uncle Nat's barometer. Opening out of the cabin was the 
stateroom, or " clam shell," as uncle Nat labelled it, formerly 
occupied by the boys. In the forward cabin was the long dining 



A SALT-WATER SURPRISE. 269 

table of black walnut, and overhead was the rack, with its castors 
and tumblers. 

'•Oh, you here, Ralph?" said uncle Nat, lookhig in at the cabin- 
door. " You boys made good time getting otf . Where's Rick ? " 

"I know where he is, uncle Nat, about as much, probably, as 
he knows where I am. As for Rob, I shouldn't wonder if he 
was on top of the mainmast now." 

Rick had gone to the forward house to hunt up the " for'c'stle." 
He remembered the place, and down into it he went and looked 
about him. 

" There are the three windows," he was saying, " and one, two, 
three — yes, there are the twelve berths, and there on the wall 
is the picture I put" — 

'" Hul-lo, Boson ! " said an interrupting voice, and a hand, broad 
and heavy, something like a whale's fin, was yet kindly laid on 
Rick's shoulder. 

" Jack Bobstay ! " screamed Rick. It was Jack, and no one else. 

" Oh, good, good ! " exclaimed Rick, and wishing to celebrate in 
some way this unexpected and joyful meeting, he seized the old 
sailor's hands and began capering round the " for'c'stle." And Jack, 
he danced ! There they went, round and round the " for'c'stle," Jack 
singing " Reuben Ranzo ! " 

" What is the racket down here ! " called out a voice. It was 
uncle Nat. 

" Beg pardon, cap'n," said Jack, touching his cap. " We was 
only a-celebratin'." 

" Celebrating ! I thought Bedlam must have been imported, and 
the Antelope was bringing it to Boston. All right, though ! This 
is a special occasion. We are going to have a special meeting 
of the Guild in the cabin, and Jack, you are invited to it." 



270 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

*' Thankee, sir." 

There it was on the cabin-door, the notice of a special and 
social meeting of the Guild, at two o'clock that day. 

" We will all go to it," said Rob, reading the notice. 

" Uncle Nat," asked Ralph, •• how did you know the Antdopit 
was here ? " 

" When I left you, this morning, 1 went to the office of our 
agents. There I heard that the Antelope was below — they can 
telegraph up from Hull, at the harbor's mouth — and the agents 
said they were going to send down a tug. So I thought we 
would come down in it." 

'• You don't need a pilot to take her up," said Ralj^h. 

" Not now, with this tug, of course. Glad enough to have a 
pilot sometimes. There is a pilot-boat now, slipping down the har- 
bor. She has a number on her sail. The pilot-boats are very fast, 
and they are built strong. New York pilots sometimes venture out 
two or three hundred miles, I have heard it said, on the watch 
'^or ships." 

" Couldn't you take the Antelope up Boston harbor ? " asked 
Rick, who thought uncle Nat could do anything with a vessel. 

" I should not care to do it. I can handle tlie Antelope in open 
sea, but then there are peculiarities about a harbor-channel, shoals, 
and rocks, and points, that a pilot understands better than I, 
Once, in another vessel nearing Boston Harbor, I remember it 
was very rough, and No. 1 pilot-boat bore down on us. I did 
not think she could get a pilot on board very easily, but she sent 
a boat that brought to us a pilot who was every inch a seaman. 
But don't forget the social meeting of the Guild, boys, at two." 

It was not forgotten, and the Guild gathered in the forward 
cabin to enjoy a fine dinner. 



A SALT-WATER SURPRISE. 271 

" This is not Bumble-bee's cooking," said uncle Nat, " but still 
we have a good substitute for Solomon. I thought we might see 
that member of the Guild a second time on our journey, as I 
think he said souiething about it, but we have not thus far. 




•■ AT THE IlATTI.i; OF TllAFALuAK. 



Boys, instead of going to Concord to-night, as you anticipated, 
would you like to sleep here ? I can telegraph that we will not 
come until to-morrow. I have a little business to look after, which 
detains me here in the city, and you can stop, too, if you wish." 

" Splendid ! " was the comment of the Guild on this proposition. 
The tug had already whisked the Antelope to her moorings, and 
Captain Nat left the ship to send a telegram to Concord. 

One pleasant feature of this " land-lubbers' cruise at a wharf," 



272 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAIXS. 

as uncle Nat called this evening's experience of the Guild, was a 
yai'n from Jack Bobstay. It was at twilight after supper. Most 
of the crew had been allowed " a couple of hours off," and had 
started on a walk to the Common, that green, leafy centre of 
the universe. Jack took a position by the binnacle, and the boys 
squatted near him. 

" You see, boys," said Jack, " it was in me to go to sea. 
My father was English, and went to sea. His father before him 
was a sailor. He, boys, was at the battle of Trafalgar, 1805." 
Here Jack paused. That famous battle that the English Nelson 
fought with the united fleets of France and Spain, capturing nine- 
teen ships, but winning a victory at the cost of his life. Jack 
Bobstay ranked as the greatest marvel gf its kind. Jack con- 
sidered the family as immortalized, because his grandfather was 
there. True it was that certain envious neighbors declared that 
Jack's grandfather ran off from ship some time before the battle 
of Trafalgar, but Jack did not know it, and would not have 
believed it if he had known of the report. As Ralph said, " Jack 
looks upon the name of Bobstay as framed in everlasting glory." 

Waiting a while, that his audience might uninterruptedly admire 
a real descendant of a Trafalgar hero, Jack then resumed his talk. 
" Of course 1 couldn't be a land-lubber " (said with scorn), " and I 
went to sea. I remembei- that in my second voyage, I was olf 
a-fishin' in a New Brunswick schooner. I had come over to this 
side young, you know. One of the hands on board was John Rod- 
man, but we twisted the Rodman round and made Ramrod of it. He 
was a queer-lookin', long, lean kind of a man, with a long face, 
long hair of a brick color, and long nose. He was long every 
way, and Ramrod was a name fittin' close as my head into my 
cap, and T think that is a pretty close fit sometimes. He was 



A SALT-WATER SUJiFJi/SE. 273 

an inoffensive sort of a man, and I don't know but that we 
would liave liked him well enough if he hadn't seemin'ly been 
so stingy with his money. We thouglit him dreadful close, and 
sometimes we'd twit hiui 'bout it. But you couldn't rile him, 
bless me! no more than you could stir up the ocean by running 
a shingle nail down into it. We therefore thought he was a fel- 
ler that did not have much sperrit. 

" There was one thing we thought was mean. We had had 
good luck one day a-fishin', but the deck got fearfully littered, and 
Sam Croswell was one of the men whose job it was to clean 
up. ' There,' said Sam, ' any feller that will take my place, I 
will give him ten cents.' Up spoke Ramrod, 'I'll do it!' Sam 
didn't s'pose he would take np the offer, you know, for we thought 
ten cents a dreadful small sum, but that Ramrod jest got down 
on his knees and cleaned away as if he were a mop. Well, it 
made a good deal of fun among the men. Sam give him a ten- 
cent piece that had a little mark like a cross on it, and Ram- 
rod's eyes really sparkled to get that piece of money. After that, 
Sam and Ramrod had a fallin' out, and Sam was real sassy. 
He twitted Ramrod right and left about that ten-cent piece, and 
any other man on board the ship would have taken him and 
dipped him into the sea. But Ramrod was cool. He only said 
that Sam might see some day that he was unfair. ' Ramrod has 
no sperrit.' we all said. It was not strength he wanted, for he 
could have taken Sam and pitched him beyond the bowsprit. 

" We had started for home, and were off the Bishop's Head, Eel 
Brook Cove, Menan Island, a wild, rocky place ashore, and on 
the water it is apt to be foggy and always treacherous. We got 
caught off there in a fog, and steered for tlie open sea. The 
third day it blew heavy guns, and what a mass of foam the 



274 ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

water was oliiirned into ! It lifted a leetle, and we ventured 
tlie fourth day to carry a bit of sail. Tluit Mpell didn't last long, 
and back came the storm, wuss than ever. The schooner had 
begun to leak a little, ;ind Ramrod's long arms did good service 
at the pumps. But there was something to be done aloft, as hard 
a piece of work as could be given a sailor in a storm, and Sam 
was one of those ordered aloft. Sam was a coward, and didn't 
want to go, and that we all knew, and what happened tlien but 
the feller that Sam had injured and that we thought had no 
sperrit, insisted that Sam should take his place at the pumps and 
he'd o;o aloft. 

" I think every man that saw Ramrod start for them shrouds 
felt like liftin' his hat to him ; that is, if we'd had a chance to 
do nuich hat liftin'. 'Tvvas too howly to indulge in that .sort of 
poetry, and we had our hands full to keep our hats on, let alone 
the tippin' of them. I wish now, though, we had lifted our hats 
to Ranu'od, if we had gone bareheaded for life. ' See here, fellers,' 
shouted Ramrod to all his mates — so they said — 'I'm a-goin' to 
take that place ! ' And away he went to the most dangerous spot, 
and there he worked splendidly. Thanks to him, the cap'n's order 
ivas carried out, and the work done. There came, though, a tre- 
mendous lurch of the ship. My, I can feel it to this day, for 
I was at the wheel ! " Jack Bobstay involuntarily bowed, as if 
once more in the old schooner, and feeling the lurch of the sea. 
He righted himself, and went on : 

" When the schooner recovered from that, and we could look 
round, there was one man less in our crew than before. Some- 
how Rauu'od, who had gone aloft, had been flung into the !)ilin' 
sea, and that was the last of him I No boat could go for him. 
One couldn't have lived two minutes in that sea, and to try to 




bishop's head, em, beook cove, menax island. 



A SALT-IVATER SURPRISE. 2-j-] 

pick up Ramrod would have been like tryin' to fish over the 
edge of Niagray for a chip that had gone down. Well, every- 
thing comes to an end, and that storm did, and somehow we 
got our leaky schooner into port, and fixed her up again. The 
cap'n overhauled Ramrod's kid — what you landsmen call a chest, 
and there he found a little bag of money. Near the top was the 
ten-cent piece Sam Croswell gave Ramrod, for that scrubbin' job, 
you know. In this bag were other little treasures, and among 
them a pictur' of a little boy with as sweet a face as you ever 
saw, and the pictur', too, of an old lady. I tell ye, when the 
cap'n handed them round, tliere wasn't a dry eye in the ship " — 
,here Jack sympathizingly wiped two big rain-drops away from his 
"blue lights" and then went on. "The cap'n found a letter also, 
that Ramrod had half-finished, which began, ' Dear mother,' and 
spoke about his little boy. 

" He told them that he was savin' every cent he could, for 
he knew they were poor, he said, but when he got home he 
would bring a bag fidl of chink. What a mean critter I then 
felt I was for all my 'spicions ! Ramrod said in this letter he 
had had a very pleasant dream about his wife, who he knew 
was in Heaven, and he sometimes felt he might not get through 
the voyage, but then he told them to cheer up, for he thought 
he should get home sure, and if he did not, he said, ' Why, 
Heaven is just above the mast-head.' One thing was sart'in, that 
schooner's crew made up a good purse for Ramrod's boy and 
mother, and Sam Croswell gave just about every cent he earried." 
(Jack did not report that he himself actually gave all his wages 
for the voyage.) " That affair taught me a lesson ; not to judge 
by 'pearances, and when I do judge, to remember that a man 
may have some hidden motives, which, if we did know 'em, would 



278 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AXD MOUNTAINS. 



cl;ip a different outside to his life in our 'pinion of it. I tiiink 
now that homely Ramrod was a handsome feller, and stingy 
Ramrod was a gen'rous feller, and mean-sperrited Ramrod was a 
hero." 

The Guild canonized Ramrod at once. The boys lingered around 
Jack Bobstay till the cli illness of the evening air forced them 




HE KEPT THRUSTING AN OAK." 



into the cabin. There were reminders of bedtime in the city 
clocks, also, that musically called off the hours, their echoes coming 
down to the water's edge, and then embarking in the tiny boats 
of the ripples to be wafted to the South Boston or East Boston 
flats, and there ignominously wrecked on the mud. The boys went 
to their bunks and their dreams. Whether Jack's story influenced 



A SALT-WATER SURPRISE. 279 

Rick, or whether it was his situation on board the Antelope, it 
would be hard to say. Certain, though, it was, that Rick was 
dreaming all night of the sea. The most of the time, he was 
trying to get a drifted boat ashore. He kept thrusting an oar 
in the direction of the fugitive craft. He might have continued 
these efforts till morning, had not Ralph interrupted this feat of 
oar-thrusting by shouting, " There, Rick, stop poking me with 
your foot ! " And Rick stopped, his boat suddenly vanishing on 
a dark, unknown sea, even as many of our hopes and plans 
drift away and vanish forever. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



BOUND FOR CAMBRIDGE. 




DESCKIUINU kick's STATE OF MIND, 



T3 ICK felt very hajjpy. Un- 
-^^ cle Nat said the next 
morning, after the visit to tlie 
Antelope, '* I guess, boys, we will 
go to Concord via Cambridge. 
Do you remember one day on 
board the Antelope we hr.d a talk 
about telescopes ? * I think you can call it to mind." 
Ralph and Rick remembered it. 

" I said something about observatories also. Well, we have an 
opportunity to see ' a real live one,' as Rick would have said, 
when a little fellow. I mean that at Cambridge. But it is a 
warm day, and perhaps an ice cream would first do us good," 
said uncle Nat, wiping his face. 

"That would be splendid, and we could imitate the example of 
the abstemious Thoreau, also," said Ralph. 

" On a hot day," said the captain, " I am willing to sacrifice 

my theories for the comfort of the Guild. I am resigned to it." 

A like spirit did the others show. Rick was specially pleased, 

either with the prospect of a scientific tour, or the sight of a large 

cream ornamented with a single spoon. 



» " All Aboard for Sunrise Lands," p. 262. 



280 



BOUND FOR CAMBRIDGE. 



281 



It was a rare da}' in June. Cambridge was of a decidedly 
emerald appearance, streamers of green drooping from its elms and 
maple, carpets of green expanding on lawn and field, while every 
shrub seemed to be uplifting a banner of green. 

" There is Longfellow's old home," said Ralph, pointing out a 
large yellow mansion tiiat had a colonial air. 

" Sparks and Craigie ! " soon shouted out the conductor of the 
horse-car that 
had brought the 
Guild from Bos- 
ton. 

" That means 
the streets at 
whose junction 
we get o u t," 
said uncle Nat. 

Leaving the car 
tlie Guild went 
off to the right, 
through a Cam- 
bridge section of 
emerald growth, 
then ascending a 
gentle rise of 
ground, they saw 
a flight of steps 
that divided a row of bushy evergreen trees. A pretty sight ! 

" Thei'e is the entrance to the observatory-grounds, boys," said 
uncle Nat. 

They crossed a tidy lawn to the door of the observatory, a 




'A VERY SrOTTED OBJECT. 



282 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



plain, unpretending building. At its door, they were met by an 
acquaintance of uncle Nat's, who smiled, and said they could not 
encourage much visiting, but he would iiud room for so distinguished 
a body as the Antelope Guild. 

" Ralph, seems as if we had left the earth somewhere behind 

us to get into this place," whis- 
pered Rob to his cousin. 

And when one looked at the 
instruments there, it did seem as 
if the Guild had gone off nad up 
among the inhabitants of another 
sphex'e. There was the photome- 
ter, or light-measurer, for deter- 
mining the intensity of the light 
of a heavenly body. 

" And there is the spectro- 
scope," said uncle Nat. " Take 
the sun and it is a very spotted 
object seen through a powerful glass. The spectroscope enables us 
to take the light of the sun, and from it tell something about the 
make of the sun. We can examine comets and other heavenly 
bodies." 

Rob was looking at a short telescope, whose axis rested on two 
pillars of marble. 

"A transit instrument," he remarked to Rick. 
"What for?" 

" Well, to go back to the beginning, let me tell you what a 
meridian is. It is a great circle that goes through the poles of 
the heavens, the north and south points, and also the point just 
over our head, or the zenith, as they say. Now v\hen the sun 




■FRONT VIEW OP A SPOT ON THE SUN. 



BOUND FOR CAMBRIDGE. 



283 



crosses that circle, it is mid-day, and so the circle is called the 
uiid-day circle, or meridian." 

" And that word comes from the Latin in the first place," 
suggested Ralph. 

" Yes. Now, Rick, hold on to that. Transit means crossing over. 
This instrument is directed toward the meridian, and when a star 
crosses the circle, that is noted down. Wait, now, till the earth 

turns over and the star 

gets to the same place ::;:-■; ^- : -:si~:i!^^i^i--- ^- i :-■'.•«- ^ 

to-morrow night. That ■ i 

would give a star-day, or . i 

sideral, because measured 
by a star. It is used to 
tell something else be- 
sides time, but tliis will 
give you an idea of one 
thing they do with a 
transit instrument." 

" I should think it 
would be a pretty hard 
thing to be sure when a 
star got twice into the 
same place," said Rick. 

" Well," explained uncle Nat, who had stepped up, " very deli- 
cate lines go across the telescope-glass. Sometimes these may be 
drawn on the glass, or a spider's web may supply the lines. The 
moment a star gets to a line, that being the place of the meridian, 
the observer here has in his hand a little apparatus they call 
a telegraphic key, and there is a wire going to a time-writer or 
chronograph. You can go to it over there at the left if you 




,£1 



THE MOON BOLLING INTO THE EABTH's SHADOW. 



284 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



w 



wish. The observer touches his key, and that chronograpli will 
make a mark for him ami keep the mark, and he need not 
trouble himself to look at it till daylight. The next night, the 
observer can look out for his star again, and when it crosses the 
meridian again, he has a day — sidereal day they call it, 'because 
measured by a star,' as Rob was saying." 

" And perhaps the young gentlemen know that a star-day is 
not so long as a sun-day," said Mr. Graham, uncle Nat's 
friend. 

Rick was ignorant, and also impatient to know. 
" While the sun moves around from the meridian to the me- 
ridian again — or seems to move — the 
earth has been shifting its place among 
the stars, and that shifting it trans- 
fers to the sun, so that it takes the 
sun four minutes longer to get to the 
meridian," explained Mr. Graham. " Our 
clocks and watches we adapt to solar 
time, or what is called mean solar 
time." The enthusiastic soul of the 
young Rick could not easily abate its as- 
tronomical ardor, and he had several 
questions to ask which Rob and Ralph 
had answered for themselves some time 
ago. 

"What makes an eclipse of the moon, 
Mr. Graham?" 

" There, I'll show you ; " and Mr. Graham producing pencil and 
paper, quickly set down sun, earth, and moon. "There, when 
the moon rolls in to the earth's shadow, the moon is darkened, 




portion of tlik eaiitii in the 
moon's shadow. 



BOUND FOR CAMBRIDGE. 



285 



or eclipsed. When the earth and the moon are so situated that 
any part of the earth rolls into the shadow of the moon, the 
smi to that part of the earth is darkened or eclipsed. In a 
total eclipse of the sun, a halo of light is seen around the sun, 
and the name corona has 
been given to it. In the 
eclipse of August, 1869, 
the spectroscope was first 
applied to it." 

" When the sun's light 
is examined by the spec- 
troscope," asked uncle Nat, 
" what do we find the 
sun to be composed of ? " 
" We have iron, tita- 
nium, magnanese, nickel, 
copper, calcium, and va- 
rious other elements." 

Rick was deeply inter- 
ested in the conversation. 

It attracted also the older members of the party, bat they were 

more familiar with the subject than he. 

Rick declared that he would like to be where he could see 

the sun all the time, going round and round the heavens. 

"What they call the midnight sun," said uncle Nat, "where 

at midnight, or the hour of twelve, the sun is aliove the horizon 

still. Well, some time we may be in a high northern latitude, 

and can charter a reindeer team for a ride to so*me good point 

of observation." 

" Where I would like to vi.sit," said Rob, " is the moon, and 




TOTAL ECI-IPSE OF THE SUN, AUG. 17, 1869, SHOWING 
THE CORONA AND PROMINENCES. 



286 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



get a look at the earth and find out how it must seem to change 
places and have the moon under foot and the earth overhead." 

" Probably the earth would be very much spotted," said Mr. 
_ Graham, " and there 

would be a man in tlie 
earth same as the man 
in the moon." 

The Guild was now 
on its way to the big 
telescope that is the pet 
of the institution. They 
passed into a room that 
looked as if specially 
built to enclose a big 
stone pier that came up 
through the floor, and, 
conical in shape, disap- 
peared through the ceil- 
ing above. " That is a 
support for the tele- 
scope," said Mr. Graham, 
and h a s te n i n g up a 
.short, circuitous flight of 
steps, they came into a 
round room, witli a 
round roof, and there 
poised on its axis, was the long telescope that has done such 
excellent work at Cambridge. 

" Above all earthly vanities now," said uncle Nat. 

'' Yes," replied Mr. Graham, " up here you feel that your 




THE MAN IN THE EARTH AS SEEN BY THE MAN IN 
THE MOON. 



BOUND FOR CAMBRIDGE. 2S7 

neighbors are the moon and the sun, and the earth has gone" — 

" Down cellar," suggested Rob. 

" There, we call this kind of a telescope," said Mr. Graham, 
"an equatorial. Its principal axis points toward the north pole 
in the sky, and consequently is parallel to the axis of the earth, 
and that would make it, swinging on this alone, move in a 
circle harmonizing with the earth's equator, or moves in the 
equator, you may say, up and down. Now if you attach an axis 
to this principal axis, that will give the telescope a movement 
the other way from side to side. The result is that you can so 
swing the telescope as to point it at any object in the 
heavens." 

" But how do you get it through the roof ? Point it through 
those shutters ? " inquired Ralph. 

"Those shutters you speak of, extend from the bottom up 
across the roof, and can be easily opened." 

" And that round roof slips about as you may need to have 
it, and so enables you to direct the telescope toward any part 
of the sky," said Rob ; " is that so ? " 

" Yes," said Mr. Graham, stepping aside and setting some simple 
machinery in motion, that in turn started the round roof on 
its journev along its iron track. Rick thought it was delightful, 
and he fe.t that it would be a great privilege if he could run 
that roof round and round and round for an hour. 

" The telescope, you see, can turn, and the roof can turn, and 
the only thing necessary now is that the observer should turn. 
His place is in that frame that runs on that circular track, so 
he can revolve with the telescope. He is able, also, to raise or 
lower himself in his seat. If he wishes, he can lie on a couch 
we have, and look up through the telescope at a point overhead. 



288 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

The two small telescopes at the side of the equatorial will help 
him find a star he wishes to examine. There, at one side, 
behind those curtains, 3'ou see an assistant can be stationed, 
and he has a light there to set down any items the observer 
at the telescope and in the dark may give hina." 

" How long is the equatorial ? " inquired uncle Nat. 

" Twenty-two feet, 1 think. I should have to guess its weight, 
but I should say two or three tons, but it is very evenly 
balanced. There, by means of this rope, 1 can easily swing 
it." 

" The stone pillar, I suppose, is to give the telescope a good 
foundation," remarked Ralph. 

" Yes ; that pillar goes down to the ground. There is rubber 
between the stone and the floors. The idea is to have a support 
that will not feel any possible jar from the building." 

The Guild now left the telescope to its lonely post under the 
round roof. Doubtless it felt relieved when such noisy neighbors 
had gone, and it could return to its silent communings with 
Jupiter and Venus, the sun, moon, and any comet-tramp that 
might be passing that day, and the big stars and the little stars, 
that might whisper any secrets they pleased to the telescope's 
bright, intelligent face, sure that no whispers would be repeated. 
Mr. Graham took the party down cellar, where " the time " is kept, 
and which regulates the tiine-pieces of the most of New Eng- 
land. Out into the green, pretty world, the Guild walked again. 
All the young people were pleased as well as instructed by this 
visit, and Rick was especially enthusiastic. He was not clear in 
his mind whether he would like better to look through the 
telescope, or run that roof round by the day. He was as much 
perplexed as old mother-cat who dearly loved Whit'^ Puss and 



BOUND FOR CAMBRIDGE. 



289 



Black Puss, but knew not which way to turn when solicited by 
both at tlie same time. As Rick thought of the possible fun 
there might be in riding on that round roof when in motion, his 
indecision was increased. Anyway, he made up his mind to go 
into the observatory for a living. 




"^^sw^; 



A CASE OF GREAT INDECISION. 



CHAPTER XX. 



THE ANTELOPE CRAWLS OFF. 



HE good packet- 
ship Antelope was 
almost ready to 
start for sea. Un- 
cle Nat had de- 
cided to let the 
An tela ye go off 
again on a short 
voyage, delegating 
his own duties to 
an under officer, as 
his lengthened fur- 
lough would give 
the captain time 
to carry out his 
plans for the boys. 
His vessel's pre- 
vious trip had been 
shorter than his estimate. Solomon Bumble-bee had come from New 
York to serve again as cook, and already was on duty. The hour 
for the vessel's departure was set at four, one summer afternoon. 
The stout tug Nat Wales had previously attached its lines to the 

2go 




STARTING OFF. 



THE ANTELOPE CRAWLS OFF. 



291 



AiUelope, and at a monient's notice was prepared to give the ves- 
sel a long pull seaward. As the swell of the uneasy tide lifted 
the Anteloj}e, it almost seemed as if this marine creature chafed 
at its moorings, eager to be gone. 

People had gathered to say hon voyage to any friends among 
the passengers. As the Antelope was going to a French port, and 
that nationality was largely represented among the passengers, 
some of these were in smiles and otliers in tears. 

" Capitaine ! " said the sobbing mother of a French girl going 
across the hazy seas, "you — you" — 

'• Oh, yes," said the kind-hearted officer, courteou.sly bowing to 
the old mother in her shawl whose blue was as faded as that of 




■ Ai THK « llAHF. 



her eyes. '' Now don't you give yourself any uneasiness about 
her. I will see that no harm comes to her." 

There were other signs of departure than the crowd on the pier, and 
the crowd on the vessel's deci\. From the ship's boats, that bottom 
side up were stowed overhead, drooped rows of hams in yellow over- 
coats, that in the warm weather of the caboose would soon be removed. 
Through the slats of a couple of coops, were thrust the bills of a lot 
of hungry hens, and theii" language as they pecked at food in a 
trough was, " We must eat, you know, if we are to be eaten." 



292 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MO'UNTAINS. 



There were iiinuensL' watT casks on deck, leaking about the 
bung-hole as if recently filled. A man came hurrying down to 
the pier with a package of papers for the captain, and then 
appeared another man, red in the face as if he had been boiling 
in the pot with a lot of lobsters, but was rescued before life was 




A IIESIHED MOTIVE TOWER. 



extinct. This arrival was one of the kind on hand at the last 
moment. 

" All aboard ! " sliouted the officer, who was acting in Captain 
Nat's place. 

" Clear the gangway ! Cast off ! " pompously ordered a mate. 

There was a flutter along the pier and among tlie passengers. 
White handkerchiefs \yere coming out of people's pockets as if 
wings opening for flight. Rick thought of the time when he and 
the children of Pete Gray, a fisherman and seashore friend, were 



THE ANTELOPE CRAWLS OFF. 293 

in a boat (carefully anchored by that prudent parent in very shoal 
water). The freshly blowing wind gave Rick an opportunity to fly 
his kite. An umbrella, too, had been spread, and oh ! if the Ante- 
lope could have had some such motive-power, good-by to tug-boats 
then ! As it was, the Nat Wales began ominously to grunt, and 
then the tug pounded the water with its iron foot. Slowly out 
of the dock the ship was gliding, and there was a buzz of 
" good-bys " or " bon voyages," while the handkerchief-wings were 
fluttering in evei'y direction. 

" Boys," uncle Nat had said, " if you would like to do so, we 
will go in the Antelope as far as the tug takes the ship, and then 
come back in the tug." 

The boys pronounced it a " splendid " move, and were in raptures 
at the thought that the deck of the Antelojje was under them. 

Jack Bobstay and Bumble-bee were frequent objects of contem- 
plation. Bumble-bee, who was assisting the steward, would appear 
at intervals, bearing lemons on a tray, for the benefit of some 
passenger who was a victim of fear, and expected soon to suc- 
cumb to the element mischievously swinging the vessel as if in a 
crystal cradle. Jack Bobstay's voice would occasionally be heard 
roaring out some 

" Aye, aye, sir ! " 

The ship loyally followed the tug down the harbor. Fort Inde- 
pendence, the Islands, Fort Warren, Boston Light, were all passed, 
and before them was one ^nst, soft, placid, stainless sea. 

The air that had been steadily cooling, now came in damp, icy 
puffs from the shadowy sea. Then the breeze stiffened. It stoutly 
blew. The Nat Wales received the passengers' friends, and cast 
off the ship's lines, amid cheers from some and sighs from 
others. The tug turned about, while the Antelopes swollen sails 



294 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

were rapidly bearing her away. Captain Nat, Rob, Rick and 
Ralph watched the vessel as it dwindled and sank, dwhidled and 
sank, till it left not even a shadow on that cool, gray, sunset sea. 
The silver coast-lights were softly glowing to right and left, and 
as if a dragon from the sea, puffing out a l)lack smoke against 
the delicate azure of the sky, cityward went the tug. Uncle Nat 
did feel " homesick " to quit the Antelope, but he kept his feelings 
to himself. The boys were sorry to leave their friends in the 
packet, but not so sorry as were the friends left behind on the 
sea. Jack Bobstay was discovered by a shipmate in the forecastle, 
and he was at first plunging an immense red handkerchief into 
his eyes, but at this shipmate's appearance, he made his nose the 
point of attack, exclaiming, " Awful bad cold ! Brings tears to a 
feller's eyes." 

As for Bumble-bee, going this voyage as cook, he pitifully 
begged a lemon of the steward, la}ing a hand where his last 
meal had gone, and saying, " B'liev' I'se oneasy dar ! " 

Something interesting happened when Jack Bobstay .sprang into 
his bunk that niirht. 

" What to pay is in here ? " growled the old tar, as lie struck 
something hard, and yet it was something soft. He sprang out 
upon the floor of the forecastle, and by the dim light swingmg 
there, he examined the offender. Then he roared, " If I didn't 
forget that old ladv's umbrella ! " 

It was Nurse Fennel's umbrella ! The day before, at Concord, 
a black cloud rising rapidly above the blue river, threatened to 
deluge Jack, who was about going to the railroad station. 

" Shure," said Norah, the pitying Irish girl, " an ould man like 
ye ought to have a shilter. Take this," (laying her hands on the 
first umbrella that she saw) "and sind it out by the capt'n." 



THE ANTELOPE CRAWLS OFF. 



295 



Jack forgot to send it back ! 

"If Old Stupid hasn't taken Nurse Fennel's umbrella to sea," 
said Mrs. Rogers. 

It was even so. Nurse Fennel's umbrella had been taken to sea 
by Jack Bobstay. 




TBUE LIKENESS OF NUKSE FENNEL'S UMBKILLA. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



OFF FOR THE NOTCH. 




iSiig^;i 



j=|^;^_^ 



^• 



Ilurrali, hurrah, my brave boys away! 
lluirah, hurrah, my brave boys away! 
A band of the tree that have come from the sea, 
Now we are marehing througli Conway. 

TWO youths were tramping up the 
dusty road beyond North Conway. 
On the verge of young manhood, well 
stocked with vitality, the}' sang as they 
pushed ahead witli lonj,' Alpen-stocks in 
their hands. How tiieir voices rang out! 
as if the clear sapphire sky were just 
above them, and its crystal threw back 
in sharp echoes the jubilant notes. As the 
song first broke out, they emerged from 
the green, fragrant woods at the right 
of the road. They had visited the site 
of the famous " Bark Cabin," that the 
Merry family had occupied on the sweep- 
ing skirts of stately Kearsarge. 

" Here is the very spot, Ealph," said 
Rob Merry. " Don't_ you see these tree- 
trunks ? There, we cut off the trees at 

296 



S 
M 

S 

s 
% 

H 

> 



M 

as 




OFF FOR THE NOTCH. 299 

those different heights, turning them into posts to support our 
cabin frame. And if there isn't the old pine-tree, the lower part 
of whose trunk we turned into a fireplace ! If it doesn't bring 
back old times to come here ! " 

Kob went on at an enthusiastic rate, vividly painting the glories 
of Bark-Cabin days. Then the boys turned away, and leaving the 
spot to sunshine and storm, wind and winter, and " bears," as Rob 
declared, the young trampers hurried back to the road. 

Just here was a break in the trees lining the road, and they 
could look across the billowy sweeps of emerald foliage to old 
Moat, those grand, imperial earthworks built up to the clouds that 
here they might mass, and as the artillery of the tempest roar 
away. 

Noon came, hot. thirsty, hungry noon in the month of June. 

" Oh, there is a brook, Rob ! Let's stop here," suggested Ralph, 
" and make a fire and have our lunch ! " 

" Come on, and come over where the brook is. I'll set the 
table if you'll make the fire. Just the nicest nook here for a 
dining-room ! " 

And wasn't that a jolly, crackling little fire that Ralph built ! 
A strip of the Concord Freeman — newspaper, not man — a hand- 
ful of dried grass and leaves, a bunch of twigs, some stouter pieces 
of a dead oak limb that Ralph broke up with the hatchet slung 
at his waist, a match also, and from these combined, up sprang 
the magical flame that danced and leaped in wild Indian war- 
fashion, and kept dancing and leaping till the water " came to a 
boil," and a whiff of savory odor told the coffee was done. 

" A few slices of bread toasted, Rob ? " 

" Oui, Old, monster," said Rob, who was overhauling the eata- 
tables. " And a little canned chicken, Ralph ? " 



300 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

** I'm agreeable." 

" And a bit of raspberry-jam, monster ? " 

" Luscious ! Now fall in and iielp y urself to my coffee." 

" Fall into your coffee ! I guess not, sir. It mu.st fall into me." 

" And to specially accommodate us, isn't that a fine breeze coming 
this way ? " 

" It brings comfort and health, Sir Ralph. Hark ! what is that ? 
Who's that a-laughing ? " 

It was impossible to say, and yet behind the green curtain of 
leaves farther away, somebody was laughing. To the wonder and 
guesses of Ralph and Rob, there was an explanation finally made. 

Through a rent in the green curtain, a face marked with tan, 
and half concealed by straggling masses of black hair, looked 
at the two cousins reclining in their dining-room. 

"If there isn't Rob Merry! Wob-bert, how ai'e ye?" was the 
greeting from the hole in the green curtain. 

" Who is that ? " wondered Rob. 

" Come over and see your friends ! " shouted the person at the 
curtain rent. 

" Ralph, let's step over a minute and see who's there. Some- 
body that knows me. Tecumseh Johnson ! " he shouted when he 
had broken his way through the intervening shrubbery. " And 
Finley Brigham, you here?" 

Tecumseh Johnson and Finley Brigham, who had spread a lunch 
on a flat, mossy rock, were prepared to greet Rob Meriy and 
also welcomed the cousins to a " social bite." 

" And, Cummy," said Finley affectionately, " bring out the .sun- 
rise-water. Just treat our guests ! " 

The small, black-haired Indian Tecumseh liere produced a bot- 
tle of brandy, that, catching a simbeam in its glossy embrace, sent 




CONWAY MEADOWS. 



OFF FOR THE NOTCH. 303 

back as evil a flash as ever brandy or a snake's eye could pos- 
sibly make. 

" Let me pour you some, Wobbert ? " said the Indian patroniz- 
ingly- 

'' No, I thank you," replied Rob very decidedly. 

" Not any ? Indeed 1 But you will have some ? " said Gummy, 
turning to Ralph. 

" No, I thank yon," was a second decided answer. 

Ralph and Rob, as they ought to be, were as decided and 
settled in their opposition to all liquor-drinking as Moat Mountain 
is avei-se to any change of location. Rob and Ralph did not 
make a long stay with these over-friendly neighbors. They returned 
to their own table, and " cleared it," as Rob said, " wisely defer- 
ring dish-washing till supper-time ! " 

'' Going to put on some more wood, Ralph ? " he asked. " She 
will burn into the night." 

" Yes ; and it will look social when we are gone, Rob." 

The boys packed their knapsacks and speedily were off. They 
may have walked half a mile, and were busily talking about trout- 
fishing, Rob saying how much he would like to handle a speckled 
beauty, when they heard a noisy discussion ahead. Rob at once 
was eager to know what was going on, and pushed forward, 
Ralph following more cautiously. Glearing a bit of wood that 
projected itself into the road, the boys saw an immense farmer, 
in an old green wagon behind a sleepy white nag. GoUiding 
with his wheel were the wheels of a gay, scarlet-bodied buggy 
in which sat that Indian brave, Tecumseh Johnson, and his noble 
ally, Finley Brigham. 

" Bithar Bushel ! Sure as you're born, 'tis he ! " exclaimed Rob 
to Ralph. " Somebody I knew in Bark-Cabin times." The young 



304 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



riders in the buggy were shouting angrily to the sturdy farmer. 
" Come, old Turnip, let us go by ! " said Tecumseh. 
" Say, Noah-in-the-ark, won't you budge an inch ? " asked 
Fin ley. 

" No, 1 won't budge an inch more," replied Bithar. " I've bin 

budgin', done nothin' but budge the last 
five minutes. Here I am, next to nothin' 
'tween me and that ditch. You have 
more than half the road now, and I 
won't budge if I have to stay here all 
night. In that case, I shall want your 
buggy to sleep in." 

The ark, " Noah," and the white horse 
— Rob said it looked like a '' whale," be- 
ing long, big-headed, and big-bodied — all 
had a resolute look, as if ready to spend 
not only the night there in the road, but 
the season. 

"Ah, Mr. Bu.shel, how do you do? Rob 
Merry, Mr. Bushel ! " 

" Oh — all — stars — bless us, if it ain't 
you ! Glad to see yon. soon as I settle 
with these scamps. Now, you idiots, I'll 
attend to yoar case ! I'll take my sleep- 
in'-quarters now ! " 

Bithar stirred his ponderous body as if 
about to lift it and then deposit it in 
the buggy. This startled his opponents, who were rather ashamed 
also, to be seen and heard by Rob and Ralph. Tecumseh and his 
ally backed their buggy, hauled off to one side, and then throw- 




lllHNINO INTO THE NIGHT. 



OFF FOR THE NOTCH. 



305 



ing several titles at Bithar, like " Moat Mountain," " Cheese Box," 
and " Pork Barrel," as Bithar, drove off. 

" Oh, them titles don't hurt me," said Bithar. '• They don't stick 
more than a raindrop on Bunker Hill Monument. You know them 
chaps, Mr. Merry?" 

" Yes, sir. I don't know them as acquaintances at all intimately. 




IlAMll.l.\(i A M'tl Kl.i;i) uliAUIY. 



I am glad to say. They attend the same school where I go." 

" One of *liem is an Injun," declared Bithar. 

" He does }ook like it, and he has an Indian name, but that 
is all. You see th^y have something aboard besides themselves." 

" I should think they had. I'd like to foller 'em up and see 
where they'll spend the night." 

" Now that you don't want it, tht-/ iin sleep in their buggy." 



3o6 



ALL ABOARD J'0£ THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



Bithar laughed, urged Rob to " call if he could, and see the folks," 
and then the fat farmer, the green wagon, and the white " whale " 
passed slowly out of sight. Rob and Ralph trudged off in the 
opposite direction. The}^ were in the Bartlett valley, and there 

were wooded heights on 
L'ither side of them. 

" Those hills don't 
look as high as Mount 
Helicon," said Rob. 
"Helicon?" 
"About five thou- 
>and feet high to the 
tii)top point, and if the 
Muses ever lived there, 
they must have had an 
awful time in winter." 

" They probably made 
their winter home with 
Hesiod, who knew enough to live down at the foot of the moun- 
tain." 

"I see that you are posted, Ralph. This is pretty, isn't it?" 
Tlie boys stopped to look along a lengthening aisle of green to 
a hill that rose like the dome of a temple beyond. Then they 
left the road to !J;et a nearer and better look. 

" You've seen Artist's Brook, Ralph, at North Conway ? " asked 
Rob. 

" No ; I never was there." 

" Then there is one great pleasure in store for you." 
Artist's Brook ? What pen can describe it, what pencil repro- 
duce it ? 




Ml ' I % 1 11 1 i.l' 



CHAPTER XXII. 

WHERE TO PASS THK NIGHT. 

Hurrah, huniili, my brave boys away ! 
Hurrah, hurrah, my brave boys away ! 
A band of tlie tree that have come from the sea, 
Now we are marching tlirough Bartlett. 

'' I ""HE song of the trampers died away. The practical was crowd- 
-*- iiig upon the musical. The serious topic for consideration now 
was this, where to pass the night. The boys had brought with 
them a small shelter tent, carrying its pieces between them. They 
first thought they would not use it, but ask for lodging at a 
private house. They went through a little village and then retraced 
their steps, undecided at which hou.se to apply. 

" Let us try this," suggested Ralph, halting before a house 
whose big chimney suggested in the cooking apparatus below, 
immense capacity for preparing Thanksgiving dinners. 

" Couldn't possibly, could we, mother ? " said a yellow-haired, 
rosy-cheeked girl, answering the callers in one key, and then in 
a higher skrieking at the maternal head somewhere in the rear 
of the house. 

" Hain't got no room, tell 'em, Almeda," came a response from 
a room that seemed to be miles awa}'. 

At the next house a bushy, grizzly head appeared in the 
doorway. 

307 



3o8 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



" Y-e-s," was the answer to Rob's question. 
" For how much ? " 

"Well, you would want but one bed 'tween ye — and — well 
— fifty cents." 

Rob shook his head. 




NTOIIT <K\\V SCENE. 



"Didn't you want to stop there?" asked Ralph as the two 
homeless being.s moved on. 

"Too much smell, Ralph." 

"Smell?" 

" Yos ; T rlidn't want to stop with a rum barrel. The man 
had l)CPn drinking. Look here, Ralph, let's camp out. We shall 
be independent, and there will be a sense of freedom." 



WHERE TO PASS THE NIGHT. 



309 



"All right." 

" Come down into this field." 

Into a pretty, park-like field, the boys retreated, and at once 
began to hunt up stakes for the support of their tent. They 
talked as they worked. 

" Rob, you saw bears, didn't you, while at the Bark Cabin ? " 

"Oh, yes," said Rub, with 
the air of one who had met 
and slain his thousands. 

"What do they look 
like?" 

"Something like a big 
black Newfoundland dog ! " 

" They can c 1 i ui b, can't 
they ? " 

" Oh yes, they can climb 
a tree, of course." 

" I suppose they are apt 
grub round for food wherever they can get it the best ? " 

" Yes ; they like good things. They like fruit ; and I saw a 
picture where one had climbed a tree after the grapes on some 
vines growing there, and some hunters surprised Bruin, and he 
got a dose of a kind of grape he was not expecting." 

"They must give farmers considerable trouble." 

" Yes ; they might get into a melon-patch and do considerable 
mischief, and there are various things they fancy. The bear is no 
friend to farmers." 

The boys pitched their tent, gathered a bed of the tips of 
hemlock boughs, laid down their knapsacks for pillows, pnt their 
heads on their knapsacks, and stretched out their tired bodies. 




AX UAKXl'ELXED Uo-Sii OF GKAI'E. 



310 



ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 









" Glorious ! " exclaimed Rob ; " such a sense of freedom ! " 
" It is nice, and the hemlock smells nice." 

" Oh, it is everything, Ralph. Nothing like camping out. And 
doesn't that water sound soothing ? " 
" Yes." 
" It is water running over rocks. Sleepy ? I'm gaping too 1 " 

"Y-e-s. Hark! N-n-o ! " 
" What do you hear ? " 
Whack ! went Ralph's 
hand against his face. 

"What is the matter? 
What are you up to ? 
What did you hear?" 

" A mosquito — li a n g 
him ! I was listening to 
the soothing sound of 
that Avater, and he be- 
gan to blow his villain- 
ous horn." 

" The rascal ! He is 
round o n my si d e. 
There ! Take that, you 
robber. I ended him, 
Ralph." 

NO FRIEND TO FARMERS. g^t Ralph UOW had 

his hands full of a fight with several winged guerillas. 

" Don't send 'em over this way, Ralph ! Y^'es, send 'em along. 
I'll stretch 'em out like the first one. Oh, mercy ! Half a dozen 
of those highwaymen have gone off with my nose ! Look here, 
Ralph ! " 




WHERE TO PASS THE NIGHT. 3" 

Ralph was now in a furious combat with the invaders, and 
could give Rob but little attention. 

" Ralph, I'll fix the villains. I'll just make it tight around the 
door, and hang my coat there, and if you'll slaughter those inside, 
I'll keep the outside ones from coming in." 

" I'll do my best," said Ralph feebly, at the same time laughing, 
" but I'm growing weaker every moment from loss of blood." 

'• Too bad ! There, I've got' em." said Rob, hanging his coat so 
that it covered the cracks about the doorway. " Now all we have got 
to do is to slaughter the red-handed murderers with us, and no 
others can come in." 

Hum-m-m ! Hum-m-m ! Hum-m-m ! 

" What is that Ralph ? Where did those fellers come from ? " 

" Round back of my head somewhere, Rob." 

"Stuff the hole up. Here! Plug that in." And Rob pulled 
out a stocking from his knapsack. 

Hum-m-m ! Hum-m-m ! 

"Oh, dear!" groaned Ralph. 

" More of the critters ? " 

" No special increase that I know of ; but it is so hot and 
stiffling here ! ' Such a sense of freedom,' you know, Rob." 

Rob roared. 

" Here we are, the ninnies, cramped in this oven, Ralph, where 
you can't see a thing! And the skeeters in, can't possibly get 
out. We must board 'em all night. Why didn't I think that that 
water near us would breed mosquitoes ! " 

" ' So soothing.' Rob I " 

" Soothing ! I'll make a soothing sound for us both, Ralph, 
and get out of this baking-pan ! " 

Here Rob braced his back against the ridge-pole of the shelter- 



312 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



tent, and then energetically lifting, threw tlie shelter-tent up and 
over, and liberated two roasting, itching, bleeding mortals. 
"That's what 1 call a vulcanic effort, Ralph." 
" We are hot enough, Rob, to have come from a volcano. I 
feel as if I had been thrown out of Etna." 

" But we won't give it up. We will get on to higher ground. 
Let us get out of this, cross the road, and build on that rising 

ground — the Home of the 
Tramp." 

" All right. There is still 
daylight enough to do it." 
The Home of the Tramp 
was set lip again, and this 
time, on higher ground, in 
dry pine woods. 

" There, Sir E a 1 p h of 
Concord, isn't this better?" 
asked Rob yawningly, as he 
lay down once more in the 
A coi.D-wKATHEK CAMP. shclter-tent. " A little warm, 

it is true, but then it is dry. Good deal better than one of those freez- 
ing, cold-weather camps people are sometimes forced to make." 

" Rob," said Ralph, changing the subject abruptly, " you were 
speaking of bears a little while ago." 
" Yes." 

"Well, do you suppose we shall get a chance at one?" 
"D-doutful, very," replied this high Ursine authority. "No; 
don't believe we shall." 

" It would be sort of nice to hitch a stout noose to the limb 
of a tree, and put bait near it, so that the noose would hook 




WHERE TO J'ASS THE NIGHT. 



313 



him up — I mean a bear — 
and we find him there in the 
morning, strung up some time 
in the night." 

" It would be a very oblig- 
ing sort of a bear that would 
run his head into a contrivance 
like that, and let us look at 
him. Oh, dear ! Sleej)y ! " 
Here Rob gaped, while his 
eyelids drooped wearily. 

Gently, sluggishly, delight- 
fully he was d^fting oJEf on 
the current of sleep toward 
the Land of Dreams. The 
noises in the forest were so 
softened that they soothed 
rather than disturbed the tired 
camper. 

The frogs could be heard 
piping in the lowlands below, 
but these ambitious serenaders 
of the meadow nymphs were 
at a distance, and their tune 
was hushed and drowsy. One 
vile mosquito tramp did force 
its way into camp, and gave 
fi. nasal blast through his horn, 
but it mingled with all the 
other sounds now dying on 




A VEUY OBLIGING SOIiT OF A BEAR. 



314 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

the ear of Rob, and lent only a tuneful note to the receding chorus. 
As Rob's eyes closed, Ralph's opened wider and wider. Ralph 
could not sleep. 

" Hot ! " he explained, kicking off imaginary bedclothes, and at 
the same time evoking a groan from Rob. 

" And if the mosquitoes haven't come ! " said Ralph. Only a few, 
but they belonged to the guerHla horde down in the field, and had 
learned from them how to use a feeble mosquito's weapon of 
defense, his sting. While striking out at these, Ralph heard a 
noise without. 

"A footstep!" he said. "I hear the leaves crackling!" 

Ralph was right. A creature of the forest was creeping about, 
and Ralph's imagination immediately represented it as a — bear! 

So unfortunate is it when young campers talk about bears just 
before bedtime ! 

Raljih was now sitting upright. There was the ci'ackling noise 
again ! 

"Ahem! Rob!" 

No reply from the victorious, but now slumbering fighter with 
five hundred thousand bears. Ralph shook him by the shoulder. 
Rob stirred, and as he came to the surface of wakeful life ^gain, 
he was conscious that Rob was calling him : 

" Rob, did you hear that ? " 

" Hear what ? The mosquitoes ? The ruffians ! Have the}- found 
us ? Here's for 'em ! " 

" Did-d-n't you hear-r-ra step ? " 

"Step? Hark, hark! yes, I do. What is it?" 

<' Can't say." 

" I don't believe it is anything worth minding. Have you been 
sleeping ? " 



WHERE TO PASS THE NIGHT 315 

" Sleeping '■ About a smucli as a boy Foiirtb of July morning ! 
I thought I felt his breath." 

" Whose ? A boy's on the Fourth ? " 

Ralph could but laugh here, and was ashamed to say that he 
thought any wild beast had poked his nose into the camp and 
breathed on him ! 

" You've been dreaming, for you don't talk straight, Ralph ? " 

" No, I haven't." 

" Well, what do you want ? Hot, isn't it ? " 

" What say to trying a cold weather camp, one of the horrid 
kind ? " 

" You are facetious, Sir Ralph. Do you really mean that you 
want to move ? " 

'•I — I — think it might be — be well," said Ralph, who thought 
he heard again that sound of crackling leaves^ but was ashamed 
to speak of it. 

" Where shall we go ? We have tried the field below the road. 
and the hill above the road, and shall we bunk vi the road now ? " 

" Don't you remember a schoolhouse we passed ? " 

" Yes ; but it must be locked." 

" No ; when we passed it, I noticed the door was open a 
bit." 

" Come on," 

In a few minutes, two shadowy figures were stealing along 
the country road. No light could be seen twinkling out of the 
big blacks of shadow, supposed to be houses that they passed. A 
mist was out that night, and the dimmed stars looked like very 
poor tallow candles trying to shine in the sky window. 

" Here we are, Rob, and the schoolhouse door is open," said 
Ralph, pushing ahead into the dark, echoing entry. 



3i6 ALL ABOARD LOR TLLE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

" Scholars," suid Rob, addressing an imaginary collection of 
youth, '• we are the ' deestrick ' committee, and have concluded to 
visit you, though we come at an unusual hour. Our interest in 
education is so great that we could not stay away. We do 
love you, and we highly appreciate the efforts you make. We 
think a good deal of your teacher also " — 

" He, does, scholars," interjected Ralph, " for I understand her 
name is a Miss Gray." 

"Scholars, please excuse my colleague. I am sorry to say that 
he partook of some bad brandy offered by an Indian down the 
road a piece, and is consequently not responsible for his very inap- 
propriate comment on my speech. Unable to be separated from 
you, we will now proceed to camp in the schoolhouse. Ralph, I'll 
camp on a bench I find up this way, and you " — 

" Scholars, you see he has taken a seat not very far from the 
teacher." 

" That bad brandy — silence ! " 

" I will keep still if I can find a bench to occupy." 

" Oh, here is one ! " and Ralph stumbling up an aisle, after 
bruising his hips and shins against the seats, stretched out on a 
bench that ran along the rear wall of the schoolhouse. Oh, what 
hard, aching seats ! But no mosquitoes were there, and no " bear " 
was smelling about the premises. Gradually, after many twistings 
to get on to the softest places possible in the benches, the boys 
fell asleep. The night gradually went by. Over the wooded hill- 
tops fell the gray light down into the valleys. It straggled 
into the uncurtained windows of the schoolhouse, bringing with it 
an awakened breeze that murmured through the entry, hummed 
among the seats, and whispered in the boys' ears ■• Hadn't you 
better get np ? " 



WHERE TO PASS THE NIGHT. 



317 



"Oh, dear!" yawned Ralph. '-Rob!" 

" Wh-wh — what — yer — wanter ? " 

" Want-er ? Don't you think we had better be moving before 
folks are stirring much ? They won't know what to make of 
it, seeing two tramps coming out here." 

" Well-1-1 ! Good-by, scholars ! We have had a very refreshing 
time here." 

" Scholars, he didn't say good-by to the teacher. I will say 
good-by for him, as he is a bashful man." 

Out into the thin, gray light, moved the boys. From the farm, 
house chimneys, no smoke as yet was floating away. By degrees, 
the stiffness passed out of the campers' joints, and the school- 
house whose benches had stiffened those joints, also passed away, 
at least out of sight. 



)-^l 




A RURAL MEMENTO. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



IN THE NOTCH. 



IT was past noon of another day. The boys had left Bartlett 
behind them, had tramped through the seven-mile piece of 
woods beyond Beniis station, and were now nearinsj the Willey 
House in the Notch. 

" There is the Willey House, Ralph," said Rob. 

" That where the slide was V " 

" Yes ; when we had our tent in the Notch, camping out one 
summer, we heard all about it. You see it was in August, 
eighteen hundred and twenty-six, — yes, that's it. Samuel Willey 
lived here with his family. It must have been a fearfully lonely 
place to winter in, biit in suuimer I suppose they caught some 
of the travel on the road through the Notch, though in those 
days it nmst have been very scattering. Well, it had been a 
dry summer, and there came at last a tremendous rain. That 
stream over there is the Saco, you know, that runs through 
the Notch, and the rain just made a torrent of it. One theory is 
that the Willeys left the house to escape the Saco. Going outr 
doors, a slide overtook them and swept them away. But the Saco 
may not have frightened them, only the noise of that awful 
mountain slide, and they rushed out only to meet it ! If they 
had stayed in the house, they would have been safe, for the 
house wasn't touched, after all. There is a big rock back of the 

318 



IN THE NOTCH. 



319 



house that divided the slide, part going to one side and part to 
the other." 

"Did they find the bodies?" 

" The most of them. I beUeve they didn't find three children." 

" Avalanches are avi^ful things." 

"Terrible. Look over at the right. That is Mount Webster, 
and you can see where the slides there have scarred the moun- 
tain." 

The boys halted, and leaning on their long alpen-stocks, looked 




up to the frowning, ledgy heights of Mount Webster. Gaunt, 
bare, torn by slides, its massive crags loom up above the Notch 
Valley, and support a forest growth on top that the winds must 
rise to a height of four thousand feet to ruffle. On the Notch 
side it is an immense rocky wall, down which crash at times 
heavy masses that the storms loosen. It was once labelled the 



\ 



320 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

Notch Mountain, and is, indeed, the mountain that so prominently 
projects itself into the Notch, and that fills the vision of the 
spectator with its bold, towering, stretching ledges. 

" This is not a very cheerful place in the winter," suggested 
Ralph. 

" One can imagine what it must have been once. Now we 
have the railroad that goes back of the Willey farmhouse, higlier 
up by several hundred feet, and tlie trains make a cheerful noise 
the gloomiest winter day." 

" No trouble about finding bears here once." 

" No, nor wolves, and they must have been ugly travellers here 
in lonely winter days." 

If the boys had been in the cars, they would have been lifted 
high enough to enjoy the long Notch panorama of mountain 
scenery, the lofty green shoulders of Willey towering at the left, 
the bare, desolate, storm-seamed crags of Webster frowning in their 
sullen grandeur at the riglit, wliile ahead rose up Willard. Mas- 
sive, giant-like, it threatened to plant a rocky foot on the railroad 
track below, and stop forever the passage of the mean little iron 
horse that screamed and blustered there. Willard, though, actually 
interposed no such obstacle in the way of tlie last locomotive that 
had arrived from Portland, neither did it offer any resistance to 
the passage of two tired boys through tlie narrow little gateway 
of the Notch. Dusty and hot, Rob and Ralph sauntered wearily 
along to the doors of the Crawford. 

" Halloo, here they come ! " shouted a voice, and the next moment 
out rushed Rick Rogers, quickly followed by uncle Nat. 

"Well, boys, how are you?" asked uncle Nat in his hearty 
way. " Glad to see you, I am sure. This was the afternoon we 
arranged, when we separated in Boston, to meet one another here. 




AN AVALANCHE. 



JN THE NOTCH. 



3^3 



but I didn't know as you would get here quite so promptly." 
" Here we are 1 Stage-coach has arrived, slow, but sure," said Ralph. 
" Come iu, boys ! We'll have supper for you right off." 
How acceptable was the rest of a hotel after that tramp ! It 




AN UGLY TRAVELLER IN LONELY WINTER DAYS. 

rained that night. The wind howled through the mountain-passes, 
and drove the rain in shattered lines down into the valley. 

"Couldn't have used our shelter-tent with much comfort to-night," 
said Rob. " It is too leaky." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



UP TO CLOUD-LAND. 




T 



I ME, latter part of after- 
noon. A railroad track 
r u n n i n g into the wild, wild 
woods, a short little train with 
a tipsy-looking engine, and 
s o m e w h e r e, up among the 
clouds, the top of JMount Wash- 
ington ! 

"Here we go, boys," said un- 
cle Nat to the Guild, as the en- 
gine began to tug and groan, 
taking the first wheel-roll toward 
the summit. The boys felt that 
thrill of pleasure accompanying 
every experience meaning motion 
to a wide awake youth. 

" But what if the train should slip back, uncle Nat ? " inquired 
Rick. 

" If it should, it — it — w'ould not be pleasant to think of what 
would undoubtedly happen. It won't slip, though. There is a cen- 
tral cog-rail, and when we go up into a wheel rolling on the 
central rail, works what they call a ' dog,' a stout ' dog ' of 

324 



UP TO CLOUD-LAND. 3 25 

wrought-iron, and this keeps the train from slipping back. So 
don't you worry." 

"If a train did slip — just supposing it — it would make some 
progress down," said Ralph. 

" Once, they tell me, some fellows recklessly gave a push to a 
platform-car, waiting before the Summit House. The car was three 
minutes in going about 
two and tliree quarter 
miles. Then it stopped, 
ending in a smash-up. 
It will take us an 
liour and a half to 
go up." 

S t e a dily, patiently, 
the enyrine tugged 
away. It stopped to 
cool and moisten its 
hot, dry throat, drink- 
ing from water tanks 
placed near the track. 
One of these tanks is 
at Jacob's Ladder, almost fifty-five hundred feet above the sea. 
This memorial of the patriarch is a long piece of trestle-work, run- 
ning sometimes thirty feet above the rocks. 

There were at intervals tempting views down the Anmonoosuc 
Valley, but as the train climbed higher and higher, tlie outlook 
broadened far beyond the valley. It seemed as if invisible hands were 
drawing aside the folds of a curtaui of light, delicate azure, dis- 
closing tempting reaches of mountain scenery. There were the near 
mountains, with their cool, dark-green, shaggy forests, while far 




IP MOUNT WAsHlMiTiiX. 



326 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AiVD MOUNTAINS. 

away ranges thrust up their bhie peaks, like the vanishing tents 
of an army in whose ears the ringing bugles had already sounded 
the order to march. There were the Pilot Mountains, Starr King 
also, and Cherry, the Franconia Range, with Lafayette and others, 
and sharp eyes could have traced the faint contour of the Green 
Mountahis. Upon the right were the massive walls of Mounts 
Pleasant and Franklin, and on the left, like sentinels, stood up 
Mounts Jefferson and Clay. Beyond Jacob's Ladder, our party felt 
that they were invading the Summit district. The tree-line was 
passed. Ahead, was the scenery of an Arctic summer on tlie hill- 
slopes of Northern Labrador, low clamps of foliage, with rough, 
ragged masses of rock here and there projecting, an area that the 
winter reluctantly yields to a bit of summer. The firs and spruces 
that sank below the cold, and ventured to rise only a few feet 
from the ground, gave way to the Alpine willow, the dwarf birch, 
Labrador tea and Lapland rhododendron. These also disappeared, 
and the wind that blew, cold and keen, had onh' Greenland sand- 
wort and other tough Arctic growth to try its sharp, hard blade 
on. But where is the Guild ? 

" Here we are at the Gulf Tank, boys," said uncle Nat, " fifty- 
eight hundred feet above the Antelope, wherever it is on the sea." 

The engine was moistening its throat for the last division of 
its journey. 

The nimble necks of the boys were twisting in every direction 
to get the view. The hills of Maine could be seen curving their 
delicate lines along the eastern horizon. 

" Clouds rolling over the summit ! " shouted Rob Merry. " They 
came up awful quick." 

They did roll up suddenly, those white, weird masses of 
vapor ! 



UF TO CLOUD-LAND. 



327 



« Too bad ! " said Ralph. " Now we can't see the sunset." 

" Oh, it may not hist long," said uncle Nat. 

The train left behind it all views of the far-reaching mountain 
scenery, the monument of Lizzie Bourne, who perished on the 
fog-enveloped summit, the carriage road on the left winding up 
from the Glen House, and into a gray, chilling cloud the pant- 







WISH I IT AD AN UMBRKLLA. 



ing locomotive ran its head and halted in front of the Summit 
House. 

" Here we are, boys," said uncle Nat, springing out on the 
platform. " We left Sunland below us, and have arrived at Cloud- 
land, but the hotel is comfortable, I know." 

The Summit House was comfortable as a hotel could be in 



328 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

Cloud-land. A huge box-stove in the office was chuckling away over 
ihe wood lire it had captured, and the servants passed, bearing 
bundles of blankets to the chambers above. 

" Going to be a cold night," tlie passengers by the train were 
saying to one another as they huddled in their overcoats about 
the stove. 

"No sunset view," whined a voice. "Came all the way from 
Colorado to see it." 

''It is beginning to rain," was the report brought in half an 
hour by a man who entered the office, the rising wind slam- 
ming the door furiously behind him. 

Yes, the rain was speedily dripping, and Ralph expressed the 
wish that every being out that night might have an umbrella. 
And so the night came to Cloud-land, night dark, howling, slam- 
ming, banging, fiercely raining. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
MOUNTAIN-MIST ! BEWARE ! 

UNCLE NA.T despised deceit, pretense, — a course that had two 
faces. What he thought, he expressed accordingly. 

" Nat Stevens' nature is like a clear stream," said an ac- 
quaintance. " You can see to the bottom and tell just what he 
means. There is no mud there to make it uncertain how he 
feels." 

Captain Paley Pinkham was a muddy brook. It was hard to 
tell what he did think, and as he rather delighted in mud, be- 
lieving there was no wrong in deceit if it hurt not his interests, 
the Pinkham brook did not run clearer as that brook ran longer. 
Captain Pinkham knew uncle Nat, and having brought his boy 
Barker to Mount Washington, Barker and uncle Nat's young con- 
voy became very good friends. 

" Stevens," said Captain Pinkham, " let us walk to Mount 
Jefferson from the summit. We can cross to Clay and then to 
Jefferson, and come back again without difficulty in little more 
than a half-day." 

" Shall we take the boys, Pinkham ? " 

" I would like to, but Barker has been sick, and is not really 
strong enough. T suppose he will insist on going. He feels free 
as a mountain bird up here." 

"Tell him the facts, and don't let him go," said uncle Nat 

329 



330 



ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AXD MOUaY'JALNS. 



decidedly. "I imagine the 
boys all free as mountain 
birds, but I don't believe we 
should let them go where they 
wish." 

" Humph ! I can't manage 
my Barker that way. If I 
tell him he is not stroncr 
enough, he will surely want 
to prove his strength and go. 
I will start with y-ow in fif- 
teen miniites if you will go." 

"All right." 

The boys all felt as if 
winged. They were restless 
with the spirit of adventure. 
They had already been dis- 
cussing a mountain walk. 

" There, Barker and Ralph," 
said Rob, as he laid his fin- 
ger on a mountain map sus- 
pended by uncle Nat from 
the wall of his room, " there 
is a chance for many moun- 
tain tramps about Washing- 
ton." 

" That is so," said Barker, 
holding his hat behind him, 
and eying the map intently; "but first, where shall we go?" 
Barker's father had answered that question to uncle Nat, but 




FREE AS A MOUNTAIN BIRD. 



MO UNTAIN-MIST! BE WARE ! 



331 



said nothing to Barker. Wlien he left the hotel, he told the 
cleriv in the office to say to Barker tliat he was going off on a 
tramp, and might be away all night. 

"That will keep him quiet," thought Captain Pinkham, "for 
he knows he can't be gone that length of time away from a 

good shelter, but would 
iJ^/jf surely clamor to go a short 

distance." 

" But you don't expect to 
be gone all night," said un- 
cle Nat, who knew of this 
message. 

" N-n-o ; but maybe that 
will quiet him." 

"Maybe Mount Washing- 
ton may spit out hot stones 
morrow, but I don't believe it will." 

Pinkham's only answer was a 

" And another thing," thought uncle Nat, 
" you can't box up a lie so tight but that 
it will get out on some aide." 

Of course the Guild, as Rick said, 
"fairly boiled" to go, but the path was too difficult for Rick, 
and Rob offered to stay and keep him company. 

"Ralph and I will both stay," said Rob to Rick, and some 
time we three will tramp off somewhere." 

That quieted Rick. The hours rolled off. By and by. Barker 
found out at the office where his father and uncle Nat had gone, 
and he refused to be quiet. 




DISCUSSING A KOUTE. 



33' 



Ai.L ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



" Only to Mount Jefferson ! " he said to tlie clerk. " Pooh ! 
That's short." 

" Only your legs won't feel that it is short. It is a hard 
walk." 

" I don't care. 1 mean to try it. Father won't get ahead 

nie. 

Barker did not make his interesting discovery until half an 

hour previous to the return of his father and uncle Nat. He 

was off in two minutes. About fifteen minutes after his departure, 

Rick was out on the platform before the hotel. Looking off in a 

southerly direction, he saw a light, feath- 
ery mass of gray rise above the rocks 
and then disappear like a flag lifted and 
waved, and then withdrawn. The flag 
was raised again, but its folds were am- 
pler. It disappeared once more. Then 
it seemed as if twenty flags floated up, 
but they did not sink again. 

" Mist ! mist ! " screamed Rick, rushing 
up to the room where Rob and Ralph 
were. 

" Let's go down and see it," said Rob 
to the boys. 

They were out watching tlie gray 
masses rolling everywhere over the sum- 
mit, when, up through it, came uncle Nat and Captain Pinkham, 
struggling over the rougli bowlders. 

" Here we are, back safe ! Just in time to escape the mist. 
It struck us or we struck it about four hundred feet below the 
summit," said uncle Nat. 




KOU S OiFBU. 



MOUNTAIN-MIST! BEWARE! 



333 



" Hard walk over the rocks," said Captain Pinkham, " but it 
pays. We had some splendid views." 

A little while after, Captain Pinkham was talking with the 
clerk in the office. 

" Seen anything of my Barker lately ? " asked the captain. 




A WHITE MOUNTAIN KOAD liETWEK.V W 111 IKl ll-,I.l> AMI .11,1 FEKSoN . 

"A little 'black and tan' I saw friskin' round, sir?" 

" Well I dare say he was friskin', but I didn't mean a dog- 
barker, but my son Barker." 

" Oh, oh," said the unabashed clerk, whom no mistakes ever 
confused, no awful personages ever awed. "He thought he would 
go over to Mount Jefferson to find you." 

" Find me. and get lost in the mist ! That's enterprising. I 
thought I fixed it so he'd keep quiet." 

No ; for a lie, is a difficult thing to be boxed up tight. 

" Oh, sir," said the clerk, apologizing indirectly, for the " black- 



334 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

and-tan," " folks up here are apt to feel most equal to anything." 

" Yes ; but that is risky business." 

" I think he will be back, sir." 

The enterprising Barker, though, did not come back, and his 
father was worried. lie disclosed his anxiety to Captain Stevens. 

" We might hunt him up," suggested uncle Nat. 

"We might get guides to do it," said Captain Pinkhani. 

The guides, though, were all away from the hotel. 

" Then I guess we will accept your offer," said Captain Pink- 
ham to uncle Nat. " Where shall we hunt, and how shall we 
hunt ? " 

" I have been talking with the boys and the hotel-clerk, and 
from what they tell me of the time when Barker was missed 
by them, I do not believe that he went so very far. He had sense 
enough, undoubtedly, to turn back when the mist reached him." 

"Well, where is he now?" asked his father anxiously. 

Nobody liked to answer that question, but uncle Nat said com- 
fortingly, " Oh, we will hunt him up." 

*' Lemme hunt ? " said a small, sharp, enterprising voice. 

It was Rick. 

" Ha, Rick, you hunt ? " said uncle Nat. 

" You and me." 

" I — 1 — I " — uncle Nat began to shake his head ominously — 
" I think I couldn't take you. But you can stay here and have 
a welcome ready for us." 

Rick submitted, but in his heart he thcjught the preparation 
of that " welcome " would be a scanty equivalent for the romance 
of a hunt on the wild, mist-covered mountain. It was settled that 
there should be three parties going out, and tliese Captain Pink- 
ham insisted should be numbered, that there might be " system." 



MO UNTAIN-MIST ! BE WARE ! 



335 



Number One consisted of Captain Pinkham, Number Two was made 
up of uncle Nat solely, and Number Three included Rob and 
Ralph. 

" We hunt, of course," suggested Captain Pinkham, " on the side 
of the summit toward Mount Jefferson." 

" And as I believe, we none of us have what is indispensable 
in mountain travelling, a compass," said uncle Nat : '■ we must 
build little cairns of stone to guide us back." 

" And shout as we go," suggested Rob. 

" Yes," replied Captain Pinkham, " and Barker will then be 
likely to hear us." 





SNOWY TOPS. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE HUNT FOR BARKER. 



"NJUMBER ONE, Number Two, and Number Three now moved off. 
-L ^ '■ We will put about fifty feet between us at the start," 
suggested Captain Pinkliam, " and branch off steadily as we go. 
We shall cruise over considerable groi;nd that way." 

Number On« selected the middle part of investigation. Number 
Three took the position at the left of Number One, and at the 
right was Number Two. 

"Now, Rob, let's move off! Isn't this the ticket?" said 
Ralph. 

Rob was ahead, and halted in a mirmte to erect a cairn on 
tlie to pof a old j-ough bowlder. He placed three small stones there, 
and then waited, that Ralph might come up. Rob looked off. 
" I am on the edge of nowhere," he said ; " mist, mist, mist ! 
Oh, this is magnificent, Ralph. I must let off some steam. 
Whoop-p-p ! " 

" Whoop-p-p ! " came a response at Rob's right. 

" That is Captain Pinkham," he said. 

" Whoop-p-p ! " was a response farther away. 

336 



THE HUNT FOR BARKER. 337 

"That is uncle Nat," called out Ralph. 

Three voices coining up through the gray ocean of mist, three 
voices from three islands in that ocean. Rob and Ralph scrambled 
on over the rocks. 

" We will build our second cairn now, Rob, before the other 
is lost," said Ralph. 

" Build away ! Here is a good one to start it with," and Rob 
laid a piece of stone on a flat, broad bowlder. There were 
occasional shoutings, but this lung exercise ceased to be fun, and 
it was only practised when it was thought necessary to warn the 
lost Barker. Cairns were now and then constructed. 

"0 Rob, what is that?" 

" D'ye see Barker ? " asked Rob excitedly. 

" No ; but look here." 

Rob looked and saw a rent in the gray curtain ahead. Then 
he saw a strip of mountain forest, and then the blue tip 
of a mountain. The rent enlarged, and the boys knew that they 
were looking through the mist down upon the Ammonoosuc Val- 
ley. 

'• Why, Ralph, we have got to the edge of the mist." 

"Sure as you were born! On this side, we are through." 

The edges of the mist were curling over into feathery masses, 
then rising and floating away. 

" No use to go any farther, is it, Rob ? " 

" I should think not. We had better hunt where the mist is. 
Let's turn back." 

They were following the line of the cairns when a voice was 
heard. 

" Some one calling, Rob." 

"Hull-o-oo-o!" 



338 Jill ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 

"There it is, Rob!" 

" I hear. Can't be one of our party, for it is over at the 
left. We are the farthest in this direction, you know." 

" And it wasn't ' whoop ' wliich was our style, but • IIullo ! ' " 

The boys looked at one another significantly. 

" It must be Barker," said Rob. " Bark-ker-r-r ! " he shouted. 

" You hark, Ralph." 

Ralph now barked : " Bark-ker-r-r ! " 

"IIuU-oo-o ! " came a near response through the mist. The ardor 
of the boys in hunting up the lost Barker was intensified. Over 
the hard, splintered, angular rocks they scrabbled. 

" Hope he isn't hurt, Rob." 

" Hope not ; but people climbing round carelessly, sometimes 
sprain a foot," said the old mountaineer, " and they may have to 
hold on till they get help. Bark again and cheer him up." 

" Bark-ker-r ! " 

" Say ' Coming ! Cheer up ! ' Let me, though." Rob shouted, 
" ' Com-ing ! cheer-rup ! ' " 

" There ! That will do him good," he added. 

Visions of a wilted form, leaning against a bowlder, a face white 
with excruciating pain, hands extended pitifully, came into Ralph's 
thoughts, when out from the mist was projected Captain Pink- 
ham's burly form seated on a rock ! 

"Grandmother!" soliloquized Rob. 

"That you? " asked Ralph. 

" I guess so ; and that you ? T thought I was calling Barker. 
You didn't give the whoop." 

" And yoxi, didn't," said Rob. 

" Didn't I ? Then I forgot. I've been bawling till I was tired, 
and the mist giving out on my side, I thought I would come 



THE HUNT FOR BARKER. 



339 



over this way where you were, and perhaps I might also run into 
Barker. Wliere is the boy ? " 

" That's what we would like to know. I guess we might as 
well go back to the 
summit," said Rob. 

Back of tliem the 
mist was not clear- 



, ;i^ v?^ «''«^" 




"Perhaps, we had 
better go back," con- 
cluded the captain. 

But in which di- 
rection was the top 
of the mountain ? 

" Where are your 
cairns, boys ? " asked 
the captain. 

"We left them to 
hunt you up, but 
where are yours ? " 
asked Ralph. 

"Oh, I left mine, 
and I til ought I 
would trust to yours." 

This was indeed a 
most interesting dis- °^ ''""^■ 

covery, for no one could say in which direction the summit was. 

"I guess all we can do is to bawl for uncle Nat," said Ralph, 
which was a humiliating proposition. There was no other alterna- 
tive each one felt after a prolonged search. 



340 ALL ABOARD lOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

" We can't get to the sumniil, and the summit won't come to 
us," said Rob philosophically, "and here goes. Uncle Nat!" he 
shouted. 

There was now a series of wild, unearthly appeals to " uncle 
Nat," Captain Pinkham bawling loudly, and these at last brought 
uncle Nat, when lo ! as he appeared in one direction, tlie mist 
broke in another, disclosing the railroad track not far away ! 

" If that isn't provoking ! " said Rob as he laughed heartily. 

"What, because I came?" inquired the new arrival. 

" No ; but because we didn't see the track and follow it." 

" I heard such pitiful howls over here, I thought you had found 
Barker and wanted help to take him home." 

"Barker!" remarked Captain Pinkham, his face dropping, "I 
wonder where he is ! " 

" I guess," said uncle Nat, " he struck a place clear of mist, 
and went to the hotel. Any way, it is clearing all about us 
now, and we might go to the hotel and see if he isn't there." 

The scattering mist was wreathing itself about the party of 
rescuers as if to carry them olf on its gray wings. Soon the 
Summit House was visible, and soon after it was reached. At the 
hotel, though, there was no Barker ! 

The evidence was clear that he had been in the office, had 
interviewed the clerk, and left for a tramp to Mount Jefferson. 
He had not been seen since. 

" No other way than to hunt him up," said Captain Pinkham. 
" I am going to my room for another coat, and will go off to 
hunt again." 

He went up-stairs, thinking of Barker when he was a little 
boy, how touchingly his l)lue eyes would appeal for help in an 
emergency. The father could now see those blue eyes, tenderly, 



THE HUXT FOR BARKER. 34i 

beseechingly, looking through the mountain-mist ! How dear the 
lost Barker was ! 

He opened the door of his chamber, and there on the bed — 
was not little Barker, but big Barker, a veil of mute slumber 
covering those sad, blue eyes ! Yes, fast asleep, that big Barker ! 

'■^ You here?" roared the father. "Making all this trouble for 
nothing ? " 

" I got — tired — didn't go — far — to Jefferson — and came — 
home," said Barker. 

Uncle Nat chanced to be passing the chamber door about that 
time, on his way to his own room. He afterwards said that while 
he did not like family quarrels, it did him good to hear some 
honest English words that told a straightforward story, beyond all 
danger of deceit or double meaning. Captain Pinkham was so 
stirred up, that if Barker had been a veritable " black-and-tan," he 
might have been the occasion for the prosecution of a suit against 
Captain Pinkham by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



THROUGH THE FRANCONIA NOTCH. 




A MOUNTAIN RAVINE. 



"r^OWN the mountain crawled again the 
^-^ little train, the engine cautiously feel- 
ing its way from cog to cog, making no hasty 
move, but in a very deliberate, dignified style, 
bringing to Sun-Land the people it had car- 
ried to Cloud-land. 

They had seen the various objects of in- 
terest on the summit, the two old-fashioned 
coops, once so famous as hotels, behind the 
summit, and they had seen the outside, at 
least, of the building where the United States 
Signal Service keeps a detachment of its force, 
looking at the skies, feeling the pulse of the 
fast-moving wind, registering cold and heat, 
keeping vigilant watch through the hasty sum- 
mer, and the long, benumbing, ice-bound win- 
ter. 

" Our plan now is," uncle Nat said to the 
Guild, "to pass Sunday in Bethlehem, and 
then go down through the Franconia Notch." 

That Sunday in Bethlehem ! 

The heavens were so blue, and seemed to 
342 



THROUGH THE FRANC ONI A NOTCH. 



343 



come 80 near the earth, descending till they touched the moun- 
tains which sloped up to them like massive stairways. If any one 
had mounted these stairways and looked off, it must have seemed 
like a glance into Paradise, so fair were earth and sky. 
^ Uncle Nat and the boys, according to their custom, attended 
church, and after a twilight service, were watching the sky from the 
hotel platform. There were great gold and orange masses of 
cloud, bordered witli smoke-like mist, and then as if conscious that 




ECHO LAKE. 



all this glory was only a dais for his throne, the sun came out 
of his concealment and shone in such regal splendor, crimson, and 
gold, and purple flashes surrounding him like banners borne by 
an unseen host ! Uncle Nat did not say what was in his mind, 
and the boys were silent, but the one thought in all was this, 
"God is just as beautiful and glorious as all that ! ' In a little 



344 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



while the twiliglit deepened into the night and the stars twinkled. 
The next day the Guild began the journey through the Fran- 
conia Notch. Tiie junior numbers of the Guild had the great 
pleasure of firing a cannon over Echo Lake. The discharge tum- 
bled out of their nests 
ill the crags a thousand 
echoes sleeping here, that 
now woke up and grum- 
bled, and scolded, and 
roared, only to die away 
in softest murmurs. The 
boys were then eager to 
see the " Old Man of the 
Mountain," or the " Pro- 
file," as given by a more 
dainty l^ut less forcible 
style of nomanclature. 
Off they all tramped. 

"They s a y," ex- 
claimed Rob Merry to 
Ralph, " 3'on must go 
down a piece on the road from the Profile House, and look up on 
the right, and I'm tired of screwing my head round to the 
right." 

He abruptly stopped his scolding. Looking up once more, far 
up, far away, he saw the stern face of the Old Man of the 
Mountain. 

There he was, all the outlines of his face sharp and angular, 
his chin heavy, and set, and square, his nose bold and pointed, 
the eyes sunken, but the gaze fixed, the stony soul expressing 




I'ROFILE LAKE. 



THROUGH THE TKA^CONIA NOTCH. 345 

itself in a scorn, a defiance, a stern, pitiless, inflexible re- 
buke of the world that had found him out and had come 
in wondering crowds to see him, and yet up there he defied them, 
despised them, dared them to get nearer, ior when they climbed 
the mountain and laid inquisitive, irreverent hands on what they 
supposed to be his face, they found only ledges of rock, through 




KIVAL OF WASIIINGTU.N, .MOUSIl.AMvE. 



whose fissures the wind shrieked in scorn and said, " Ha, ha ! " 
The " Old Man " was still the inaccessible, invincible king. 

"How many pieces of rock make his face — did you say they 
told you at the hotel, uncle Nat ? " asked Ralph. 



346 



ALL ABOARD I- OK THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



" Three ledges, they told me, measuring together somewhere 
about forty feet. One ledge, yoii see, makes the chin, another 
that upper lip and tlie nose, and then the third makes the 
forehead." 

" It must be pretty high above the lake," said Rob. 

" Yes ; it is twelve hundred feet above Profile Lake." 

" I should — should think he'd tumble off into the lake," said 

Rick, who had been gaz- 



ing e n t h u s i a s tically at 
tliis stern old man of the 
hills. 

" I dare say he will, 
some day. They say the 
granite up there is crumb- 
ling, and people have been 
advised to hurry up if 
they want a good look 
at him, but I guess he 
will hold on yet awhile." 
" I wonder who found 
the old man out," said 
Ralph. 

" Two men, I believe, working up here about eighty years ago, 
noticed it. They happened to be washing their hands in the lake 
(one name of the lake used to be the Old Man's Washbowl), and 
I suppose they chanced to look up, and discovered that wonder. 
The Indians used to worship the Old Man of the Mountain, the 
story runs. 

The Guild turned to resume their journey through the Notch. 
Clouds, thin and filmy, were stealing toward the face of the Old 




OLD TIME FLUME. 



THROUGH THE FRANCONIA NOTCH. 347 

Man. A black crow went with flapping wings overhead. As it 
flew on, its dismal " caw, caw," dropped down into the road, and 
it seemed like a last voice from the Old Man, who was about hid- 
ing himself in a misty veil from a world he both scorned and 
defied. 

The Franconia Notch is not so ragged a cleft in the mountain 
ledges as the Willey Notch. Its slopes are less abrupt, its style 
of beauty gentler, and then it possesses such marvellous pieces of 
stonework, where water, cold, clear, flashing, is the artificer. They 
saw the Pool with its dai'k shadows, and the Basin with its 
rocky walls. 

" And have you had a look at the Flume ? " asked a self-import- 
ant gentleman of uncle Nat. He was a hotel acquaintance, with a 
turned-up nose, very bright eye-glasses, and a pompous voice. 
" See the Flume by all means, my friend. In it there is an 
immense bowlder that began to fall toward the bottom of the 
Flume, but never reached it. There it is, an inquisitive rock that 
wanted to explore the mysteries in the depths of the mountain 
chasm, but was arrested in its descent, and gripped there forever. 
See it, I beg you ! " 

Alas ! that very night, people heard a roar in the mountains. 
Down came a crashing mountain slide. It tore through the Flume 
chasm, enlarging it, and swept away the bowlder " gripped there 
forever." 

There were many things the Guild wanted to see, and if they 
could only have climbed grand old Lafayette, the king of the 
Franconia Mountains, over fifty-two hundred feet high ! But uncle 
Nat's calendar was imperative. 

" "We must go, boys," he said. Down to a humbler landscape 
they journeyed. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



A CATCH. 



ROM the Franco- 
nia Mountains 
uncle Nat conveyed 
his youngsters over 
to North Conway, 
and from that vil- 
lage they rode off 
one day to Farmer 
Gray's house, where 
Rob Merry had been 
invited to take his 
companions. Rob 
Merry was no less interested than in 
Bark-Cabin days, to see the snug, com- 
fortable farmhouse, Farmer Gray, his 
liousekeeper, auntie Chris, Dick Gray and 
his family, and if the last person that 
he met was Maggie Gray, with her 
drooping curls, her bright eyes, her fair 
complexion, tinted delicately as the petal 
of a wild rose, Rob Merry was none the less 
pleased to see this last person. 





BRUIN AT BAY. 



A CATCH. 



351 



The wind blew cool that night down the mountain slopes, and 
auntie Chris started a fire in the big-mouthed, black-mouthed fire- 
place. Rob was eager to interest Farmer Gray in the subject of 
bears, wolves, and other specimens of wild game, and as Ralph 
and Rick cordially seconded 
Rob, the farmer told about his 
younger days, when such a gen- 
tle creature as a Bruin could 
be occasion ally 
seen. Then he 
added : 

"As I have 
said, bears could 
once be seen far 
oftener than now, 
and yet I think I 
have seen bear 
tracks in my fields 
within a few 
days." 

" Within a few 
days ? " asked Rob ^ 
eagerly. 

" I think so," 
replied the farmer. 

Here, all three of the boys leaned intentl}' forward, Ralph and 
Rick secretly wishing, in the depths of their souls, they could see 
a " real live bear." 

" 0, boys," observed uncle Nat, " bears won't show themselves 
to you." 




UNCLE NAT SAYING "COME ON ! " 



352 



ALL ABOARD LOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 






"Ah, uncle, but what if they should come at you sometime," 
challenged Rick, " say, walking toward you, what would you do 
then ? " 

'• If I luid a gun, 1 would say, Come on ! " laughed uncle Nat. 
" And if you hadn't ? " persistently continued Rick, " what then ? " 

" [ shouldn't stop to 
*-*^ ■ "'K:i^ "^^WHKliiilllMaiat vl niake a speech, but"— 

Tliat " but " was a- 
puzzle-box to uncle Nat, 
and a laugh went the 
rounds of the-fire-lighted 
circle. 

" You might run down 
hill, if a hill w a 8 
there," suggested Farm- 
er Gray, " or climb a 
tree, provided it was 
a small one that the 
bear couldn't venture 

•• / think," said Rick 
triumphantly, '•' if there 
are signs of bears any- 
wliere about, rather 
than have uncle Nat 
eaten up, we had bet- 
ter set a trap fur them, don't you, Mr. Gray ? " 

The farmer laughed, and said, " I declare ! I guess you have 
got me, and to-morrow I will try to make a bear-trap in my 
field." 




RICK. THE THAT THII.nKR. 



A CATCH. 



353 



That night in his dreams, Rick was building and visiting traps, 
carrying to them golden ears of corn and thrusting his hand in- 
side to see what the trap might contain. His traps certainly 
were not big enough to catch 
bears. 

The next morning J 
another boy from the neighbor- 
hood, were coming down the hay- 
mow, bringing; ea;2;s in their hats, 
when they heard the farmer call- 
ing. 

" Boys ! Cap'n Stevens ! , Every- 
body! Goin' to the bear trap 
now ! " shouted Farmer Gray. In 

a very few moments af- 

ter those summons, the 
trapping party had gath- 
ered around the farmer. 
He had several pieces of 
wood in his arms, and 
these uncle Nat wished to 
share with him. To Rob 
Merry, he gave a piece of 
meat which he had pro- 
vided for bait. Then down 
through the orchard where 
the old trees were tufted 
with bird's-nests, they slowly walked, taking next a path that wound 
through a green, shady forest. Rob's mind was so filled with the 
possibilities of the existence of game in every direction, that he 




]ll N 1 Hij; KGU 



354 ALL ABOARD J- OR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 




LOOKING OUT THROUGH FOREST CURTAINS. 

would not have been surprised if he had seen a deer looking 
out of some rent in the green curtain of forest foliage. The con- 
versation was about traps and trapping. Said Farmer Gray : 



A CATCH. 



355 



" I don't want to encourage you, boys, to trap for sport. I 
trap to-day because I can't afford to lose my crops, neither can 
my neighbors. So I don't trap for the fun of it. I can't say 
that I enjoy to see boys going a-fishing unless it is they want 




GOING A-FISBING. 



the fish for food. I don't know why we should make fish squirm 
and wriggle in pain for nothing." 

They threaded the woods and then filed out into a field that 
had a luxuriant growth of early vegetables. 

" There," exclaimed Farmer Gray, " what do you call them ? " 

"Tracks of some kind," replied uncle Nat. 

" No doubt about the kind ; bear, sure as you were born ! We 
will stop that. I want some logs. Who has the meat for the 
bait?" 



35^ 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



'* I have, Mr. Gray," said Rob. 

" Hold on to it. I am going to cut down two or three trees." 

" I will look out for it. I am too anxious to have bear steak 
for supper to let the bait go." 

"All riglit. We are like a boy, you know, who is going for a 
turtle on a rock, but has not really got his hand on his game." 

Farmer Gray cut into logs the trees that he skilfully felled, 

and used these in build- 
ing a trap, where the 
bear was invited to put 
his head between two 
logs, in quest of bait, 
he disturbance of which 
bait was quite sure to 
upset the arrangements 
for keeping the logs 
apart, and then, woe to 
Bruin's neck. 

When the trap had 
been completed, and the 
party had started for 
home, Farmer Gray said 
abruptly, " Let me see ! 
Did we put the bait in 

SOMETIMES EMPTY 1 ^]^g trap?" 

•' Why, of course. We must have done it," replied uncle Nat. 
** You had the bait, Rob, and you know." 

" It is all right, and bait is in place," said Rob confidently. 

" Traps are sometimes found empty," remarked Farmer Gray, 
** and we don't care that this one shall be." 








^^r^ 




^J,y^J,^ 



A CATCH. 357 

" All right," asserted Rob confidently again. 

In the night, though, Rob woke up, and after a moment's 
thought, gave a most dismal whistle. 

" What — what's to pay ? " said Ralpli, sleepily. 

" If I didn't forget to put that bait into the trap, and it has 
just come to me where I put it, — on a stone under a tree ! 
There ! " 

Ralph drawled out, " Well, you — don't mean to — get up — and 
put — the bait in — and the — bear catch you ? " 

" No ; but I don't want to let it go off this way." 

" Oh — let her — go — I wouldn't give — a cent — for — all — the — 
the " — Ralph ended with a snore. 

" Yes, I guess I will let her go," said Rob philosophically, and 
was soon echoing Ralph's snore. 

In the morning, there were bear tracks about the trap, and the 
bait on tlie stone was gone ! 

" Alas, for human hopes ! " exclaimed Rob ; " no bear stake for 
supper, and we can't stay over night to set the traps again. 
Going to ride to North Conway by moonlight this evening Other 
people will have the supper they want, even dumb things, but 
Robert Merry will not have his favorite dish. Alas ! " 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



ON WHEELS. 



/^NE rainy night, a week after the close of the last chapter, 
^-^ a carriage could have been heard as it lumbered along, 
pulled by a horse that pulled as sluggishly as if asleep. 

"Come, fellers, we might as well stop at the first house we 
come to. It has rained ever since we saw that old bridge under 
that gray sky, and it is raining harder, we believe. Why, that 
rain almost put out the fire where we heated our water for 
supper," said one of the occupants of the carriage. 

" It almost put Rick out," said another occupant. 

" Oh, I was all right, Ralph, under the roof you made me," 
answered Rick. 

" Well, boys, we are all wandering from the point. I am afraid 
our Dobbin will be put out by this rain, if we don't stop soon 
as possible. We nuist stop at the first house we come to," said 
the first speaker, Rob Merry. 

" Don't you worry, Ralph," replied Rick, " Dobbin can hold out 
some time longer yet. She is as invincible a beast as the tortoise." 

" And as poky." 

" Yes ; slow but sure. Look ahead, there ! That is a light, 
and a light from a house." 

" You must be right, Ralph. I'll pull up this foaming steed 
and jump out to see if we can't be put up." 

358 



ON WHEELS. 359 

"Let me go," urged Ralph. 
" And me," added Rick. 

The result was that when this door of the house was opened, 
an old man saw three young fellows pressing eagerly forward, 




Rick's head persistently thrust between the forms of his taller 
companions. 

" Massy ! " exclaimed the old man, holding a candle with a shiv- 
ering flame above his head. 

"Could you put us up?" asked Rob. 

" We'll pay you," added Ralph. 

" Won't make you much trouble either," said Rick, anxious to 
take some part in the negotiations. 

" Sa-??irt«-thee ! " piped the old man. 

An old woman here stepped to the door, her bright spectacles 
giving , a certain sharpness to her sight. Then there were her 



360 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



sliarp nose and sharp chin, and all was in strange contrast with 
the old man's plump face and Hat features, and a certain dull- 
ness of look. 

"Who be they, Nathan? Oh, you three? Wall, I wouldn't turn 
a frog out in this rain ; " and she moved away. 

The old man then beckoned the boys in, as if saying : 

"It is all right. Sa- 
manthee is willin'.' ' 

"But we have a 
team," explained Rob, 
" and I would like to 
put it in your barn." 

" Silas! " said the old 
man. 

A heavy man. with a 
bushy head of red hair, 
and a tired, shuffling 
step, came from some 
dusky corner in the 
j_" room, took down a lan- 
tern from a nail, 
lighted it, and went 
with the boys out to 
the barn. When Dobbin 
had been safely quar- 
tered, the boys ventured 
to the warm kitchen 
and sat down in the chairs that " Samanthee " placed for them 
in a row. 

" B'long round here ? " asked Nathan. 




RICK UNDER COVER. 



ON WHEELS. 



361 



" "We are on a wagon-ride," said Rob, " bound for Lake Winne- 
peaaukee and Mount Belknap. Any game round here ? " 

" Ain't much to-night," replied " Samanthee." 

Here the old man chuckled. He had a funny way of laughing. 
His whole face rested on an immense double chin as a foundation, 
and when he grinned, the double chin seemed to part and smile 



,/ / 




' SLOW BUT SUUE 



also. The boys always spoke of him after that night, as Grandpa 
Double-chin. 

Rob was not to be put off with the meagre information about 
game which the old lady gave, and remarked : 

" There must be squirrels about here, at least." 

" Heaps," said Grandpa Double-chin. 

" They must be flyin' ones to-night," remarked Samanthee, " and 
git out of the rain quick as possible." 

Rob, though, was not disconcerted. He pleasantly' observed : 

" Flying squirrels, they nuist be nimble fellers. I have read 
about them, and the kind on this continent is said to be five 
inches long, and the tail, with its fur, measures five inches more. 
Around each eye is said to be a black line, while its color in 
general — the squirrel's color, not the eye — is a brownish gray 



362 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 



and white beneath. They go it Ui^e fun from tree to tree, spring- 
ing across a distance of fifty feet, not straight over, but down 
crosswise, and when mostly over, then wheeling upwards, and land 
on a limb about a tliird as high as the plaCe on the tree where 
they started. And it is funny, and yet simple, what helps the 

squirrels do it, a sort of 
skin of the flanks that 
stretches between the 
fore and hind legs. They 
are great on the fly." 

Grand pa Double-chin 
was now thoroughly in- 
terested. He acted as if 
lie had been challenged 
to tell what that local- 
ity p r d u c e d, and he 
gaA'e an extended ac- 
count of what he had 
seen and what others had seen, one thing leading to another, like 
a long train of school-children's sleds attached to some farmer's 
red pung. Conversation flagged at last, and then the old gentleman 
returned to a point not as yet sufficiently clear to him. 
" Did you say you b'longed round here ? " 

" No, sir," said Rob, who was a bit disposed to retaliate for 
delaj'ed information about the game, and not tell his residence. 
There was a spell of silence. 

" A-ham-m-m ! " coughed the old man. " Wall, it is no wonder 
that our bright young men are not willin' to stay in New Hamp- 
shire, business bein' dull in some places." 

This ingenious compliment pleased and amused Rob, and he 





FLTINa SQtriKKELS. 



ON WHEELS. 



365 



thought he would not keep Grandpa Double-chin any longer in 
painful suspense. 

"These two come from Massachusetts — Concord — and I am from 
New Hampshire, but not this way." 

" Oh ! " said the old gentleman, " Massachusetts is a good State, 
but then, I have a great likin' for New Hampshire." 

To make it all right for Rob, who still lived in New Hampshire, 




A LONG TRAIN OF SCHOOL-CHILDREN S SLEDS. 



and might be classed among unambitious boys willing to stay in 
" dull " places, Grandpa Double-chin generously said : 

" Wall, I don't mean that all the boys stayin' in New Hamp- 
shire are not bright. Massy, no ! I expect we have lots of 'em 
now, smart as Horace Greeley ever was. I've seen Horace Greeley," 
he affirmed triumphantly. 

"You have, sir?" asked Rob. 

" Sarti'n ! I've been in the town where he was brought up. He 
used to attend school in je.st a country schoolhouse, you know. 
Why, they say Horace was a great speller when he was very young 
— a master speller — and they would take him when a little feller 
to the evenin' spellin' schools. There he would set, with the rest 



,566 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



of 'em, uU in a row, you know, and he would get asleep, but 
they would wake liiui uj) when his turn came, and he'd spell his 
word and tlicn drop oil" ag'in. lie was a master speller, tliat 
boy. lie had a hard fight to get ahead, but he kept at it, kept 
at it, you know, and at last he became editor of that big paper 
in New York. Some difference between the Tvihunt buildin' in 
New York, I have heard about, and a leetle country schoolhouse, 
but there's a ladder from one to tother, and a boy that has a 
mind to climb will fetch up high, sometime. Then there was 
Daniel Webster. Big man as he was, he was only a New Hamp- 
shire boy once. He 
attended school down 
at Exeter Academy. 

" Then there was 
Vice-President Henry 
Wilson, a poor boy 
over in Farmington. I 
have seen the place 
where he was born, 
and when the people 
hauled a big stone to 
the spot (it took thirty 
oxen to do it), and 
put a 'scription on it and sot it up to remember him by, I saw 
it done. Oh, yes, I think there's great enkerrigement for New 
Hampshire boys." 

Here Grandpa Double-chin sent an inspiring smile over toward 
Rob. He had not said anything about Massachusetts boys, but 
as they were both fast asleep, stimulus would have been wasted 
upon those young plants. Not only were they asleep, but Saman- 




SCHOOLHOUSE. 



ON WHEELS. 



367 



tliee's nose was bowed suspiciously close to lier knitting-work, as 
if she thought that her nose might serve as an additional needle, 
and it certainly was sharp enough. Grandpa Double-chin wisely con- 
cluded that it was bedtime, and all speedily adjourned. Rob's sleep 
was continuous until in the gray of the morning he heard the 
quack of a duck in the yard. Then — he sprang out of bed? 
No ; he turned over and took a nap. 




TRIBUNE BUILDING. 




CHAPTER XXX. 



WIJTNEPESAUKEE. 



'T^HERE, boys!" 
■*■ "What is it, Rob?" asked Ralph. 
"I believe I left a book back there at Grandpa Double-chin's, 
and here we have gone three miles this morning from the 
house ! " 

" Was the book worth much ? " asked Rick. 

" I don't know whether it was or not. It belonged to Jack 
Bobstay, and it was the story of some old salt. It was a pretty 
old affair, and it didn't look as if it was worth anything, but 
then I believe he said it was a sort of family relic, and on that 
account would be worth something." 

" Things are pretty well balanced, the pros and cons in the 
matter," said Ralph. 

"Yos; like two flies on ^he ends of an old cat's whiskers. I 

will be on the safe side, I guess, and go back with the team and 

368 



WINNEPESA UKEE. 



369 



get it. Sorry to bother you, fellers, hut we had a late start, and 
it must be about dinner-time, and if you and Rick have a mind, 
Ralph, to start a fire, we will lunch when I get back. I'm awful 
sorry to have this delay, but I suppose it must be." 

When Rob returned, he found a crackling fire over in a field that 




THINGS PKETTY WELL BALANCED. 



skirted the road ; bread had been toasted, corned beef had been 
sliced, a pie quartered, and three plates, each flanked by a knife and 
fork, set in a row along the tablecloth of green grass. 

" Look here ! " said Ralph, as they were eating tlieir dinner, 
" I think Rick promised uncle Nat he would look up the subject 
of Lake Winnepesaukee and tell us about it." 

" Yes, and I'm ready," said Rick proudly ; " and if you want 
to hear about it, you can have it now, for I'm all through, I 
believe."- 

Rob said that " unfortunately the larder was too low to give 
them any dessert, and Rick's paper would be a good substitute 
for ice cream and cake." 

Rick took the compliment with a grin, and began to dish oiit 
his dessert : 

" I expect the Lake was once a great place for Indians, and 
in 1746, a regiment of New Hampshire men spent the winter 
near the Lake, on the lookout for the French and the Indians. 
The soldiers were here about a year. The Lake was so lonely 
that the savages could easily shoot round in their birch canoes. 



370 



ALL ABOARD FOR TLIE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



and nobody know 
anything about it. 
Its name is long 
e n o u g h and liard 
enough to be Indian, 
and it has a l)eau- 
tiful meaning. Once 
they said it meant 
" the smile of the 
G 1' e a t Spirit," but 
now they say it is 
"The Beautiful Lake 
of the Highlands." 
It would be hard to 
say wliat it looks 
like, because its 
shores twist so, hut 
it is nineteen miles 
long, and in the 
broadest part, it 
measures eight miles 
and a quarter. The 
water is very pure, 
and in some places 
it is two hundred 
feet deep, and runs 
by way of the Winnepesaukee River into the Merrimac. Some tliiuk 
that tlie water ought to run to Boston. They used to sa}' tlie 
Lake had as many islands as there are days in tlie year, but I 
believe they can only count two hundred and sixty-seven now. 




BUNKEK HILL MOMMKNT. 




'•LONEI.V IN WliNTEIi. 



WINNEPESA UKEE. 



373 



The islands take in about eight square miles of land, and in the 
Lakes are about seventy square miles of water. Some of the 
islands have funny names, like Bear, Cow and Rattlesnake. The 
last has rattlesnakes. The people on those islands get ashore by 
means of 'horse boats,' and in winter, of course, they can use 
sleighs along the smooth, shining ice. The Lake is about five 
hundred feet above the sea. It is thought there must be many 




LAKE WINNEPESAUKEK — STEAMBOAT COMING. 

springs at the bottom of the Lake to feed it, as the streams 
running in to it do not seem big enough to fill it." 

The boys were discussing this " dessert," that Rick furnished, 
when Rob said, " If Boston should take the Lake for its supply 
of drinking water, as some people have seemed to think they 



374 ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTALNS. 

had better do, the water could run far above the top of Bunker 
Hill monument, and be sure, without pumping, to reach the tallest 
fire." 

It was now time to go. The crockery was packed (can not 
say if it were washed), the grazing Dobbin was put into the 
wagon shafts, and off went the Guild, laughing and singing. The 
sun flashed out of a cloudless sky, and the forests were of a 
vivid green. 

" It is a pretty country," said Rob, at one picturesque point. 

"Lonely," declared Rick. 

" Yes ; one of those places lonely enough in winter," replied 
Rob. " I like in winter to be near somebody." 

But where was Ralph ? In the wagon, but why was he silent ? 
He had caught the sparkle of a blue crystal among the green 
foliage, and was watching intently, to see it flash once more. 
Then he arose, and swinging his hat, shouted, " There's the 
Lake ! " 

Yes ; the Lake was soon stretching before them, expanding, open- 
ing like thvi rolls of a folded painting, one sweep of glorious azure. 
Beyond it towered the emerald mountain forests. At the Weirs, 
near which the Lake discharges its waters, and where the Indians 
used to make their fish weirs, the wagon party halted. 

" Steamboat's coming ! " called out Rick. 

There it was, the Ladrj of tlie Lake, swiftly nearing the landing, 
" my lady " leaving a dainty footprint of silver in many widen- 
ing circles of ripplets. The boys made a long halt, taking into 
their thoughts the beauty around them, that would turn memor}' 
into a gallery of pictures of lake, and sky, and hills. 




CHAPTER XXXI. 



LAKE TO MOUNTAIN. 



"OOYS," said Rob, wlien tliey had climbed into tlieii- wagon and 
-'--' started up tlie faithful Dobbin, " we have plenty of time 
on our trip. Let's not hurry to-day, but find some place to 
camp near the lake, and spend the night there." 

"That would be nice," declared Ralph, and Rick supported his 
opinion. 

" Well, let's pick out our place, and spend the rest of the day 
there, and we shall be on hand for the night." 

They decided to camp under a pine that spread over them 
a big, hospitable roof of green, and close by was a smaller 
pine, to which Dobbin was tethered, liberty being allowed the beast 
to travel over a circle of green grass and nibble as many lunches 
as he pleased. 

" We can spread our rubber blankets under the wagon and 
sleep there to-night," suggested Rob. 

" Why not camp in the wagon, Rob ? " 



375 



376 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 



"Take the seat and things out, Ralph?" 

" Yes." 

"All right." 

The seat and camp equipage were removed, and the three camp- 
ers found that at night 
they would be just able to 
" squeeze in," as Rick said. 
It was only the middle of 
the afternoon, and there was 
an abundance of time for 
camp-work, for short ram- 
bles also, and sight-seeing. 
Tlie lake that had been 
ruffled by the late steamer's 
swan-like flight, was now 
still again, and as twilight 
stole over the waters, they 
grew yet calmer, till the 
shadows of the forest trees 
seemed to be traced there 
as if in motionless marble. 
Rick had been lons-inu; for 
a boat, saying he didn't care whether it was a modern craft, or an 
old-fashioned one that the Indians had burnt out of a log. 

" Young man," said Rob, " there is something else beginning with 
h that we must be looking after." 

"What is that?" 

" Bed." 




LONGING FOR A BOAT. 



LAKE TO MOUNTAIN. 



377 



" Bed ? " 

'"• Yes. We must fill our wagon with the tips of hemlock 

boughs. Then we shall have something soft and sweet to sleep 

J) 
on. 

" All right," said Rick, springing off into the forests. 

What a magnificent bed the boys rested on that night, luxur- 
ious and odorous enough for "princes royal!" They made pillows 
of their travelling bags, and blankets of their overcoats, and slept 




A MODEHN CRAFT. 



until the sun was high enough to shoot his arrows of gold at 
them through the branches of the old pine. 

From the lake, the boys journeyed to Mount Belknap, with its 
double peak, that near the foot of the Winnepesaukee looks north- 
ward acTOSs its waters. Riding through Guilford, the boys reached 
a farmhouse where they left their team, and then struck off 
through the fields, following a path that traversed a mountain 
forest and then came out upon broad, open slopes, where flocks of 
sheep stood and curiously watched them. Higher and higher climbed 
the boys, till they met the breeze sweeping up on the opposite side of 
the mountain. Soon Mount Gunstock, as that peak was called, was 
under them, and only blue sky above them. What a view of lake and 
mountains that granite watch tower, two thousand three hundred 



378 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 




MAKING A CANOE. 



and ninety-four feet liigh, gave them ! Winnepesaukee spread out 
to the afternoon sun its azure waters, while around the horizon 

swept a row of mountains, 
grand old nionarchs of gran- 
ite, wlio had come out of 
their mists to occupy, un- 
veiled, their thrones, and let 
the world look at them. 
There were the s s i p e e 
Range, Washington, Passa- 
c o n a w a y, the Franconia 
Mountains, Moosilauke, and 
others. 

What a marvellous sculp- 
turing in sapphire ! In front, slept the lake, a dreamlike softness 
everywhere resting upon it. 
Rick seemed to be absorbed 
in the beauty of the view. 
"Glorious, isn't it, Rick?" 
"Yes, Ralph," said Rick; 
" if I was only there with 
a line ! " 

" Fishing line ? " 
" Yes." 

" P h o o h ! You wouldn't 
have but a small catch." 

"Wouldn't I? I'd catch 
enough to keep our camp 
supplied with fish all the 
time," affirmed Rick proudly. 




.SMAI.I. CATCH. 




A. YOUTHFl L ROATMAX. 



LAKE TO MOUNTAIN. 



381 



Ralph did not argue the point, but turned to examine a pole 
capped with a small cask that had been erected by the United 
States Coast Survey, on Mount Gunstock. It looked like a beacon 
signal, set up in olden times, and maintained there in case of 
Indian invasions. If smeared with tar, how readily, at a moment's 
warning, it could be ignited and flame its red warning in the 
night to some other solitary signal station ! When the boys reached 
the path down the mountain and began the descent, Rob turned 
once more to see the pole rising up against the hazy eastern sky, 
and throwing its shadow upon the lonely mountain summit. 













IF ONLY THERE WITH A LINE, 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



ONE MORE ADVENTURE. 



SA-3fAN-TREE ! " 
"What say?" 

" Come here," said Grandpa Double-chin to his beloved spouse. 
" Them boys are comin' again ! " 

And there they wei'e, indeed, Rob, Ealph and Rick, but they 
were no longer riding. All were on foot, and two, Rob and 
Ralph, were beliind the wagon, which they steadily pushed. See- 
ing Grandpa Double-chin and " Sa-man-thee " standing in the door- 
way of their home, Rob called out, " Whoa, Dobbin ! " and then 
approached his former acquaintances. 

" How do you do ? " pleasantly. " You didn't expect us so 
soon, but our mountain-and-lake trip has been made, and we are 
going back to our starting place, a station on the Boston, Con- 
cord and Montreal Road, and there we take the cars for home. 
But you see our Dobbin has given out, and I guess we shall have 
to get you to put us up again, and we will give Dobbin a 
rest." 

" What say, Sa-man-thee ? " inquired Grandpa Double-chin. 

" Well, I hain't no objection, if you'll take us as we are." 

" Oh, certainly," said Rob. " We have a small tent, and per- 
haps at night we can sleep in it, and you quarter us by day at 

your table." 

382 



ONE MORE AD VENTURE. 



383 



In a very short time Dobbin, who was quite " miserable " for 
a horse, was munching hay in Grandpa Double-chin's barn, while 
the boys were pitching their tent in a green little grove of spruce 
that dotted Grandpa's farm. 

That afternoon Rob and Sa-man-thee had a talk. 

" Have you seen any wild critturs yet ? " asked Sa-man-thee, re- 
membering Rob's interest in the aiiimal kingdom of the forest. 

" N-n-not much," replied Rob, 
who did wish he had seen a lion 
hunt or some other surprising 
thing, which he could report. 

'• You needn't go fur to see a j-i 




A SWEET SINGER. 



wild critter. There's our Butcher 

in the yard. He was too wild 

for me, and T wouldn't give him 

house-room a m i n u t e. They 

chained him in the yard a spell, 

but he hain't no sperrit now, and he mopes around. I 'spect the 

fire's in him." 

" Wliat is the matter with Butcher ? " 

" I 'spect he is sick, but I tell 'em though he hain't no sperrit, 
the fire is in him." 

Rob had noticed the mean-looking cur that crept about with 
half-closed, wicked eyes. 

'' He doesn't seem, marm, to have enough life to do anything." 

'• You might put your hand in his mouth and try him." 

Rob declined, though, to give him a hand to lunch on. 

The boys laughingly took the old lady's woi'ds as a motto^, 
"though he hain't no sperrit, the fire is in him," and often 
addressed the evil-eyed,, moping Butcher in that style. 



384 



ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 




The boys put up their shelter-tent at the base of a sandy slope 
whose ridge was covered with trees. It was a spot sheltered from 
the wind, and not far away was a stream of sweet, cool water. 

One special attraction to 
Rick was a hole near by, 
that he called a " cave." 

Rob and Ralph climbed, 
the sandy slope, one morn- 
ing, and reached its wooded 
top. They were standing 
on the edge of the slope, 
facing the woods, and lis- 
tening to the musical morn- 
BALPH's SQUIRREL. jjjg ^ymn of a robin, when 

another noise was heard. They listened intently. 

" Here that squirrel in the branches ! " said Ralph. 

The boys were looking up to see the squirrel, when a third 
noise was audible. It was a rustling of the undergrowth, and 
then, without another moment's warning, there rushed upon the 
boys the villainous Butcher, but so changed ! his ears thrust 
back, and his eyes thrust forward, all his malicious powers gathered 
into one violent, hateful spring. Tlie boys were completely sur- 
prised. They raised their sticks in defence. For one moment they 
made an interesting picture, standing there on the ridge dressed in 
their neat, jaunty camp-suits, bravely facing the beast, but the next 
moment — 

They could hardly explain it afterwards, but they forgot that 
they were on the very edge of the high sand-bank, and Rob in turn- 
ing to get a better footing, stepped over the edge. Raph uncon- 
sciously imitated him. Away they went, rolling over and over, 



ONE MORE ADVENTURE. 385 

bumping one another, then separating, going down, down, to the 
bottom of the bank. It was an ins;lorious tumble. 

" Well," said Rob, laughing, " I thought that beast didn't have 
' no sperrit. ' " 

" Ah," said Ralph, " but Sa-man-thee declared the fire was in 
him." 

" I am satisfied with the proof. Ha, ha, Ralph ! " 

The journeyings of the Antelope Guild at last were over. Rob 
Merry returned to his father's home, and the Concord boys went 
back to the Rogers' nest. The Antelope itself came home, and with 
it arrived Nurse Fennel's umbrella, so that her grief at its loss 
now ceased, and she sat contented once more by her spinning- 
wheel. 

" All home ! " exclaimed uncle Nat. " It is a good deal to say, 
that you have gone in safety on your visit, have had a good time, 
and have come back in safety." 

Yes, it is something to be grateful for, that the kindly care of 
our Heavenly Father has gone with the wanderers from any home- 
nest, and that safely they have winged their flight back again. 
In His presence, may we all find our final home. 




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BRIGHT AND HAPPY HOMES. 

A HOUSEHOLD GUIDE AND COMPANION. 

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THE READY LAWYER; 

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•A.N AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY IN ONE VOLUME."- 

THE AMERICAN FARMER 

A HAND-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE 

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ONE LARGE ROYAL OCTAVO VOLUME, 

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Library Style, Full L,eather, Unrble Edges 4 a» 



"He who Keepeth Correct Accounts Defieth the Sheriff's Officers." 

— Ah old Maxim.. 
The Dutch have a Maxim that *' No One is ever Ruined who keeps Good Accounts." 



FARMERS' RECORD AND ACCOUNT ROOK. 

I. D. AFFLECK, A. IVI, 

Revised and Improved from the Eighth Edition of the " PLANTATION 
RECORD AND ACCOUNT BOOK. " 



ARRANGED FOR AXr Sl'STEM OF FARMING, IN ANr LOCALITr, AND- 

FOR FARMS OF ANF EXTENT, WITfi MAPS !• OR 

FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD. 



COMPLETE IN ONE LARGE FOLIO VOLUME. 



THE ONLY COMPLETE RECORD AND ACCOUNT BOOK PUBLISHED. 



THIS system of farm accounts was first introduced in 1848, by Thomas Affleck, of 
Brenham. Texas, under the title of '■*The Cotton Plantation Record and Account Book." 
The rapid sale of each edition was a SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE of approval by those 
for whom they were preparud, and their adoption led to frequent expression of their g-reat 
practical value. Cotton Factors warmly favored these books as being^ SAFEGUARDS to 
them in their dealings with Planters, and also rerommendiny: them as a system of accounts. 

The present edition has met with FLATTERING RECOGNITION by the leadings 
ag'riculturists of the United States. In its application it will be esteemed as valuable when 
supplying the demands of the thorough and economical system now being inaugurated on 
the farm. 

By this system of accounts the farmer will be able to " WEED OUT" all unproduc- 
tive crops, stocks, etc., stop ail unnecessary expenses, make investment of labor ana money 
intelligently and where the LARGEST GAINS mav be expected. 

The arrangement, ruling and printed headings are so simple and complete that anyone 
without a knowledge of the principles .and practices of hook-keeping, but who can merely 
write a LEGIBLE HAND, is enabled to keep this book correctly, AND STRIKE A 
TRUE KALANCE at the close of the year. 

No Farmer, Planter, Fruit or Stock-raiser should be without this valuable and labor- 
saving " Record and Account Book." The work is arranged for any system of husbandry, 
for the products of any climate, and for farms of any extent, provided with numerous forms 
in whicn to record every incident, enter every item of income and expenditure connected, 
with the farm, and for showing briefly the profits and losses of the year. 



THE BOOK COMBINES DAY-BOOK, JOURNAL, STOCK-BOOK, 
LEDGER, AND DAILY RECORD. 



DESCRIPTION AND PRICES. 

The "Farmers' and Planters' Record and Account Book" is published in one large 
folio volume, 9Hxl3 inches. Printed from clear new type, on fine, heavy, extra double 
French folio cap paper, made expressly for this book, carefully printed headings, ruled, 
with blue and red ink, and bound in the most substantial and elegant bindings, at the fol- 
lowing prices: 

In English Silk Cloth, Leather Back and Corners, - . $3.00 

In English Silk Cloth, Russia Back and Corners, . - - 4*00 



REMEMBER THE YOUiNG FOLKS. 



A CHARMING NEW AND POPULAR JUVENILE WORK. 

ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS 

A Book of Travels through Colorado, California, Across the Pacific to Japan, 
China, Australia and the Isles of the Sea. 



— uv — 
EDWARD A. RAND, 

Author of "Pushing Ahfad," "Roy'i Dory," ' Uark Cai.in." "Teni In tht Notch," ao<] other Popular Stork*. 



ONE ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED QUARTO VOLUME. 



ALL AllOAKD FOR SUNRISE LANDS, details a trip throuirh the ^rand and 
Avondcrful canyons of Colorado and California, thence by steamer to Japan, ther. throup;li 
the Polynesian Seas — and past Borneo and Java to Australia and return, by way of the 
principal sea-port cities of China. 

The party of voyagers consists of TWO BRIGHT Massachusetts hoys, under the 
ijuidance of their uncle, an old and experienced sea-captain. Thev visit all tlie PRIN- 
CIPAL PLACES of interest in the states and countriis named, and stay long enough in 
each rcgiun whit h thev visit, lo see and learn a great deal that is valuable and interesting. 

THE INFLTJENCK OF JUVENILE LITERATURE when i>ure, strong and 
healthy, not of the silly kind that sickens and falls Hit — not of the unnatural goody-goody 
sort, but just suited to the young folks, full of real life, of real ]>eopIe, cannot be over- 
•estitnated, and will always be found interesting and profitable, nooks of travel and 
adventure when written by a conscientious writer, possess a fascination and interest to 
the voung found in no nthtr vnlnme. They educate the tastes of both boys and girls, and 
make TRASH NAUSKATING. 

ILLUSTRATIONS.— There is another feature of this book that must not be over- 
looked, and that is the lavish exjienditun- of monev that the publishers have allowed for 
engravings. There are more than TWO HUNDRED of these scattered through the 
volume. Not mtre daubs nor slouchy outlines, nor careless scratchings, but faithful re- 
prodvictions of careful drawings-no expense has been spared to make this book a OEM n£ 
juvenile literature. The orifjinal cost of these engravings was over FOUR THOU- 
■SAND DOLLARS, and the pubhshers feel certain that on no other similar book ])\ili- 
lished, has there been such an enormous amount paid for engravings alone. The 
mechanical construction of the book has been executed in full liarmony with the illustra- 
tions--tIu' whole prfsuntin:^ a most superb volume. 

A NEW DEPARTURE is inaugurated with "ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE 
LANDS*" Too much attention has been paid to the older folks, by subscription book 

f)ublishers, and the young folks have been almost wholly neglected. I-'or years the pub- 
Ishers of this volume have felt the need of a poi>\ilar book to meet this seeming want. 
Every year we have received repeated calls from agents for such a book, and have been 
■compelled to supply trade publications to meet this want on which there has been little or 
no profit to the agent or ourselves. The time being ripe for such a work, we have issued 
ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS. The work is peculiarly adapted to a 
general cunvas-; — :iiiil will prove both instructive and popular. It being the ONLY 
•JUVENILE Sl'BSCRIPTION BOOK in the market, agents will find no competition, 
and can sell it in connection with other hooks. 



DESCRIPTION AND PRICES. 

ALL ABOARD FOR sl'NRISE LAN'T>S. is published in one large quarto vohime 

of ni-arly -lUU pages, printed from clear, new tyi)e. on tine, tinted, heavy, crown plate paper, 

made expressly for tnis hook, and illustrated with over 300 fine engravings on wood, and 

bound in the most substantial and elegant manner, side stamps in black, green and gold, 

of beautiful and unique designs, and furnished to subscribers at the following prices: 

INSTRONGBOARDS.CHROMO COVER. CLOTH BACKS. - - $2-00 

IN ENGLISH SILK CLOTH. BLACK. GREEN AND GOLD SIDES. PLAIN EDGES. 250 

IN ENGLISH SILK CLOTH. BLACK. GREEN AND GOLD SIDES. GILT EDGES. 3-00 



JUST ISSUED! 

ANOTHER CHARMING JUVENILE WORK. 



All Aboard for the Lakes and Mountains. 

A book of Travels to the Picturesque Localities in the United States. 

A COMPANION VOLUME TO 

''ALL ABOARD FOR SUXRISE LANDSr 



BY 
ED"WA.IID A. RA.]VI>, 

Author of "All Aboard for Sunrise Lands;"' Roy s Ootv ; and othet Popular Juvenile Stories, 

ONE ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED VOLUME. 

"ALT. ABOARD FOR THE LAKKS AND MOUNTAIXS" will find a hearty 
welcome from the *'Iii(!s and lassicfr'' who have reud 5tr. Rand's first book, and they will 
gladly make a second journey with Uncle Nat, Jack Bobstay and their yonng companions 
and friends Kalph and Rick to the places and points of interest in their" own land. 

A popular writer has truly said "Among all the lands and nationalities of earth 
America stands, in nianv res,.ects, peerless, unrivaled and unrivalable. It is the broadest 
land ever given to any people, the grandest and most beautiful, the most varied in its at- 
tractions and its proOucts. and the most unlimited in its capabilities and its future." 

" The more one rambles over this magnificent continent, our own half world, and the 
more he sees of the never ending, ever changing glories, sublimities and beauties, the 
greater must be his contempt for the averai:;^ Americiin who turns his back on scenes as 
transcendently grand, varied and enchanting as ever the sun in all its wild celestial 
rounds looked down upon, and rushes off to Europe, to loaf around fashionable hotels, 
wine shops and haberdashers stores, and then come back and prate, in mock turtle 
French, of the beauties and attractions he has seen." 

"Nature never constructed a biL'ger combined idiot and cheap humbug than an 
American who goes into bogus raptures over the lakes and crags of siwitzerland and Italy 
— while he has never seen or cared to see the glorious and beautiful wonders of nature 
found in ihis country." 

Parents will gladly place this volume in the hands of their boys and girls, it will have 
a healthy influence in that it will give them some idea of the grandeur and history of 
their own land and prevent them, m the years to come, from showing the ignorance of 
their own country that is too often manifested by their elders. It was Byron, who, when 
an American was introduced to him began eagerly to question him about Niagara Falls, 
and on bein«: told that he had never seen them, turned on his heel with an oath of 
unutterable disgust at the idea of a man coming from America to Europe without having 
seen that wonder of the world iu his own country. 

THE Al'THUR requires no introduction to the reader; he has secured an eager 
and large audience among the boy^ and girls of our land for everything he writes, and in 
this vofume he has furnished the" freshest and best book of travels, crowded with matter 
about the Western World of the most interesting character, and illustrated with a large 
number of pictures. An Editor ajitly writes: "Of Mr. Rand's book, no praise can be too 
high, and the perfectness of his style is of that kind that claims and holds the attention 
■of the reader. It is a blending of incident and description, of which he is master." 

ILLUSTRATIONS. The lavish expeuditure of money shown in "ALL ABOARD 
FOR Sl'NKIsE LANDS" has also been allowed for the engravings and embellish- 
ment of this volume, placing it, if possible so to do, superior to the former work in its 
artistic and mechanical construction. 



DESCRIPTION AND PRICES. 

ALL ABOARD FOR THE LAKES AND MOl NTAINS. i? published in one 
large quarto volume of over 4O0 pages, printed from clear, new type, on fine, tinted, 
heavy, crown plate paper, made expressly for this book, and illustrated with over 300 
fine engravings on wood, and bound in the most substantial and elegant manner, side 
stamps in black and gold, of beautiful and unique designs, and furnished to subscribers 
^t the following prices : 

In Strftnff Boards. Clironio Cover. Cloth Barks, - ^ - $2.00 

In En^liKh Silk Cloth, Black And (^oM Sides. Plain Kd^CR, . - 2.50 

in English hilk Cloth, Black and (Jold Sides, (iilt Edges, - - 3.00 




K.inJ3r>)rt3 n of the Most Useful 
Knowledge for Children. 

PRESENTtNG LESSONS THAT CHARM THE CHILD OF TWO TEARS; DEUGHT 
THE ONE OF TEN; ENTERTAIN THOSE OF FIFTEEN. AND SERVE 

AS A PLEASANT REVIEW OF IMPORTANT SUBJECTS 
FOR THOSE STILL OLDER. 

iWN" EiriBOA.PTT S^^A.T^TJ <^\JA^lTO VOZ-XJlwIE, 

BY MUH. £. P. MILLER, M. D., 

NEARLY FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The work imparts elementary instruction in leading branches of knowledge, in rhjTnes- 
\B easy, Ri»d in jingles as fascinatini^ as characterize the veneral)]e "Mother Goose," with- 
ou": the proverbial nonsense anil exai^i^eriition of tliosc rhymes, wliich confessedly convey 
erroneous ideas, ^ive an unhealthful atimuhis to the imagination, and thus corrupt the- 
taste for good reading. It contains a larj;e collection of the sweetest lullabies, designed for 
recitation in the nursery before the alphaliet is learned. 

Then follows the alphabet on the Kinderr/arten plan, succeeded by simple spelling and 
relations of numbers. On the same plan essential lessons are given in physiology, astron- 
omy, grammar, composition, physics, natural history. geograjHiy, history, religion, tem. 
perance. and other moral subjects, etc.. etc., all redticeiUo the comiirehemion of theaiild with- 
out the »iUy sent'unentalism so charactei^tic of jureuilr booka, which offends it it does not 
disgust the intelligence and well-known quick pcrceptiou or" children. It is not merely a 
•' baby's book" — it is more, bein^ both entertaming aud instructive for years of the life of 
(he boy or girl. 

wlieu the lesson permits, which is nearly always the case, it ia fully illustrated with the' 
most appropriate and suggestive cuts. 

It Has Absolutely No Competitor in the Market. 

Every page shows a rare simplicity in conveying sparkling truths that will elate the lit 
tie child, and edify his nurse, parent or older companion. 

The pictures are all designed and engraved expressly for this book. The book is givei> 
to the public in the hope that it may assist parents and teachers in the arduous work of' 
educating the next generation, and will be round of invaluable assistance in the kinder- 
garten. 

We invite the attention of Aoents to the large number of flattering commendations of 
the press. Papers of the reputation and ability of those which here follow, would not 
mislead the public or our agents. We confidently believe that no book issued during the 
past teb years presents the Sf/Zi/if; Q-^/a/i/ie^ of "Mother Truth's Melodies." The work carr 
be sold in connection with any other that an agent may be interested in, and will neither 
compete nor interfere with such other sales. 

DESCRIPTION AND PRICES. 

'* Mother Truth's Melodies" are published in one quarto volume, of nearly 300 pagea, 
printed from clear new type, on flue, tinted, heavy super-calendered paper, made expressly 
for this book, and illustrated with nearlv four hundred illustrations. It is bound in tho 
most substantial and elegant manner, sine stamps in black and gold, of beautiful designs, 
and is furnished to subscribers at the following prices; 

QUARTO EDITIOlf. | ISmo. EDITlOlf. 

In Englith Cloth $t 75 In Enaliih Cloth $t SO 

In Sni/lith Cloth, out Edges . S US \ In Ennliah Cloth, Gilt Edges . 3 «0 

SOl.D ONLY ON SUBSCRIPTION. 



Mother Truth's Melodies. 

It is certainly the best book for children we have ever aeen. We are usine it in oui 
department, and the children are delighted with it. Mrs. N. S. Welch. 

Primary Teacher. Buchanan, Mich. 

I am truly delighted with it; it meets a long-felt want. The illustrations are numeroua 
and very fine; the book is a perfect kindtirgarten. I do not know of a more charming book 
for children. Uon. L. P. Alden, Supt. State School, Coldwater, Mich. 

It is certainly a great improvement on " Mother Goose." 

PnoF. E. Olnbt, LL. D., Ann Arbor, Mich. 

I cordially recommend it to all parents as a book with which, not only the children, but 
they themselves as well, will be delighted. 

Hon. W. L. Smith, Deputy Supt. of Public Inetraction, Lansing, Mich. 

It has a place in children's literature not before occupied. 

Mrs. Kendall Brooks, Kalamazoo, Mich. 

It meets our ideal of a nursery and childhood book more nearly than any other that we 
iave ever seen. Prop, and Mrs. A. E. Hatnes, Hillsdale (CoUegej, Mich- 

We commend the book heartily to all.— Herald 0/ Health. 

This is a very excellent book for the little ones. — New Haven (Conn.) Union. 

It ought to help the nurses to wise living and correct learning.— iV. Y. Times. 

Every mother in the land ought to have a copy of this charming book.— £^an^t^ (Ind.) 
Journal. 

We commend it to all and invoke a blessing on young "Mother Truth." — Some Visitor, 
-Chicago. 

The deepest and most intricate truths of science and natural history are presented in 
a wonderful simple manner.— JeT^^y CitT/ (N. J.) Journal. 

It contains not one untruth or foolish saying; it is a gem of a hook.— Boston (Masa.) 
COfnmiss loner. 

We couCTatulate the author on her auccoes, and shall order many numbers for the uss 
of our own household and our immediate friends.— Zaws of Health, Wemersville, Pa. 

It is the best juvenile work we have ever seen, and needs only to be read to be appre- 
ciated and relished.— ffrand Eapids (Mich.) Leader. 

Every lover of children and truth will be interested in this charming book; every house 
in the land should have a copy; it will entert;\in and instruct more truly and more sen- 
sibly than any other book we ever qq.\v.— Macon (Ga.) Kind Words. 

The illustrations are profuse and appropriate, and help materially to make clear the 
text to the young mind. It is. on the whole, a happy effort to put into rhyme truths of value 
in after Wtc.—Lynn (Mass.) TranscnpL 

Our old friend, little Jack Horner, is here still but reformed; the nonsensical, *' Hi- 
diddle-diddle" of "Mother Goose " becomes exalted into the music of the spheres. — N. Y. 
Home Journal. 

It is the latest, handsomest, most instructive and interesting book for children we have 
on our table, and as a work of art and merit it surpasses anything of the kind we have ever 
seen. There are not a dozen pages in the work but are alone worth the price of the book.— 
Indianapolis (Ind.) Sun. 

This volume will be welcome to conscientious mothers and nurses, as it combines amuse- 
ment and instruction for infantile and immature minds, in the true kindergarten spirit. 
Mothers will enjoy them as lullabies, and the little ones in riper years will have nothing to 
unlearn. These first impressions will remain as a ground-work to facilitate their future 
education. It is difficult to conceive, without reading this book, that science and morals 
can be made so simple and easy aa to be attractive to the youngest child; but so it is, and 
by it we know that it is as easy for a child to learn and remember that the sun is the " mid- 
dle" planet of our solar system, as " the cow jumps over the moon." What a saving of time 
and frictions, when the melodies of childhood impart lessons in mathematics, astronomy, 
botany, chemistry, hygiene, anatomy, ethics and morals— lessons that never have to be un- 
learned; foundations of truth that never have to be uprooted. Surely our friends hav« 
conferred a blessing on humanity, and given a helping hand to kindergarten education,- 
Washington (D. C.) Alpha. 



THE 



PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN, 



EMBRACING 



GIRLHOOD, MATERNITY AND MATURE AGE, 

WITH LECTURES ON 

"Co-Education of the Sexes in Medicine," "The Physiolooicai 

Basis of Education," "Temperance from a Physician's 

Point of View," and "A Plea for Moderation," 

By SARAH HACKETT STEVENSON, M. D., 

Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics^ and late Professor of Physiology in the 
Woman's Medical College of Chicago. 



This is an ably written volnme of 330 pages, and. as indicated by its title and the name 
of its distinguished author, it ia eminently a n'wnanV Book for Women. The author eayi 
in her introduction: "'Ignorance is innocence,' is undoubtedly the prevailing eeutiraeut 
tamong women concerning themselves, and even the penalty which ignorance invariably ex- 
acts of woman, does not always open her eyes; because she is taught that it is not only her 
duty, but her blessed and peculiar privilege to suffer." 

We have full sympathy with a work of this kind. We like her direct way of getting al 
things. — The Jfedical Counselor, Chicago. 

This is a book peculiarly filled for mothera.— Northwestern Advocate (Methodist). 
Chicago. 

She has treated her subject with great thorougliness and delicacy, and made it just such 
a book as should be ia the bauds of every mother in the l&ad.—l/ie ^rftanc* (Congrega- 
tional), Chicago. 

There is need of this hook.— £^v€ning Journal, Chicago. 

Information of the most incalculable worth is contained within ita pages. — The Occident^. 
Chicago. 

Contains information that is sadly needed. No wife or mother, who will road the boot 
carefully iind thoughtl'uUy, can fail to understand every sentence it zonxams.— Medical Jour- 
noiaiiU JLJUiminer^ Chicago. 

Its style is direct and simple, and entirely free from medical terms. It Is a practical- 
work. — Fraiiie Farmer, Chicago. 

It ought to be read by every woman in the land. To multiplied thousands it would be 
• gospel of knowledge and goud hL-nith.—Iie/onned Episcopalian. Chicago. 

It is a good common-seuse treatise on such subjects as ita name suggcsta.— />ai/y 7W- 
bune, Chicago. 

When the world grows wiser our wives and daughters will all be instructed in just sucb 
knowledge as this book contains. Again, the apprupriateness of learning such facta from 
an educated woman will everywhere be acknowledged as correct. The present volume is 
not medical, but only the wise advice of a woman who. by education and experience, is 
fitted to give it. It is a good book for careful study of every young lady, and just as good 
for every mother. Its design is not to make women their own doctors, but lo bo uc(niainl 
themselves with the laws of life and health that they may have vi^'orctus bodies and avoid 
those useful and much-abused members uf society, the doctors.— 7>ai/y Inter Octan, Chicago. 

This book is published with a hope of saving the women of the future from the penalty- 
of ignorance concerning themselves— a penalty which untold thousands are suffering. 
I»rlce. Ill Fine KnvliNli tlolli. ^l.AO. 

Supplied to customers through oar canvassers — who are ladies excluslTelj. 



CEN. U. S. GRANT'S 

TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 

Edited by L. T. liemlap (l^ahner). 

Contains a full and accurate description of General Grant's Tour: the receptions, both 
public and private, tendered liim; addresses of welcome — his responses; his conversations 
with public men, and a full description of entertainments, gossip, etc.; also receptions on 
the Pacific Coast, and the unprecedented series of receptions at Chicago, November 12th to 
aOth inclusive. Elegantly illustrated. One large quarto volume, 500 pages. Twentieth 
thousand now ready. The only book on the General's Tour printed in Ekolish and Gebium. 

Clotb, Back anil Side in Black and Gold $3 OO 

Clotb, Gilt Edges, Back and Side in Black and Gold 2 50 

Popular Edition, Paper Cover I 85 



THE MASQUE TORN OFF. 

By T. DeWitt Talmage, D.D., 

Author of " Crumbs Swept Up" "Around the Tea Table,'' "Abominations of 
Modern Society" "Sports that Kill," etc.. etc. 

One large Octavo volume of 526 pages, elegantly illustrated with 14 full-page engravings. 
Contains the discourses as lately delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle— giving Dr. Talmage'i 
experiences and observations as lately seftn by him, in company with two elders of hi« 
church and three high police officials, during their midnight explorations in the haunts of 
vice of New York City. They have been revisfd by Mm for this work, and are written in 
his strongest descriptive powers— sparkling with graceful images and illustrative anecdotes, 
terrible in their earnestness, uncompromising in his denunciation of sin and wickedness 
wherever found, sparing neither friend nor foe, rich nor poor. Every page of intense inter- 
est. No one can read this work without taldng new interest in the subjects treated. 

The work contains nearly forty chapters— on as many sabjects— and are Dr. Tal- 
mage's best efforts in his earnest, aggressive warfare upon the foes of society, and the ex. 
posure of the traps and pitfalls that beset the youth of our land in every city. He sounds a 
note of warning, and points out the only way to escape these pits of darkness and social 
knd moral ruin. Twenty-fifth edition now ready. 

Cloth «2 00 

Cloth, Gilt 2 50 

Hair Morocco « 60 



THE GOSPEL AWAKENING. 

Edited by L. T. Renilap. 
ONE LARGE OCTAVO VOLUME. 861 PAGES. 

One large octavo volume. 861 pages, comprising 150 Sermons and Addresses, Prayer. 
meeting Tallts, Bil)le Rending and Prayers of the Great Revival Meeting conducted by Moody 
»nd Sankey in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and Boston, as well as in Great Britain, 
with the Proceedings of the Christian Conventions of Ministers and Laymen, from verbatim 
reports by our own Phonographer and those of the New York Trilnme, Chicago Inter Ocean 
and Boston Olobe. Also the Lives of D. L. Moody, I. D. Sankey, P. P. Bliss, Major D. W, 
Whittle, Rev. Joseph Cook, George F. Pentecost, and Miss Frances E. Willard. The work 
forms a large Crown Octavo Volume of 861 closely printed pages. Sent by mail, postag* 
paid, on receipt of the price. This book is equal to 1,800 pages of any $2.00 Moody book 
published. Thirteen Illustrations, Fifteenth thousand now ready. 

t'lotli 98 50 

Cloth, out 3 00 

Sbeep 3 25 



THE HOME GUIDE. 

An Encyclopedia of All Things of Every-Day Life. 

Aa an Encyclopsedia of domestic science, we know of no book that approximates to It 
(n the fullness of its information. — Chicago Post. 

Its practical, economical and hygienic features will be recognized by every one who 
examines its pages.— .V. Tr. Lumberman, Chicago. 

No home can afford to be without this book. — ^ew Covenant, Chicago. 

For a generation to come it will be ranked with the few books which are a blessing to 
tbe home. — Journal, Chicago. 

Especial value to those upon whom devolve the responsibilities of household manage 
ment. — Tribune, Chicago. 

Elegantly illustrated. 623 Octavo pages, 68 illnBtrationa. 

Price 92 00 

Clotb, out 2 50 



THE CHILDREN'S ALBUM. 

An Illustrated Book of Objects. 

Contains 2,036 Engraylngs. The design of this book is to illustriite clearlr to the yoong 
the principal and most commoD words which admit of being explained by pictores. Tentfa 
UiooBand now ready. 

Bound In Cloth 81 50 



C 310 88 



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